The Blue Blaze: Defender of Dragons
by DragonGuyGTO
Summary: Enoch used to be a guy that was once a normal teenage boy just trying to get through life. One morning he wakes up to be a dragon and loses everything including, his human life, family and home. With the help of a few friends he meets along his life including the great Spyro and Cynder; he goes through hardships, betrayal, heartache and loss.
1. Chapter 1

Do you know how legends are born? Some say they're folklore, some say they're heroic real figures. I'll let you decide on your own.

I used to live a regular human life, I was 14 years old when it happened. I was waking up at 5 in the morning, getting ready for school, however, something felt weird but I couldn't place my finger on it. I looked around and I saw my dog staring at me like it was scared of me, I started walking toward him and he started to bark. "What's wrong Max?" I asked then he started barking even louder _crazy dog..._ I thought. I heard my door opening to see my mom looking horrified, "What have you done to my son!" She yelled I thought she was crazy, I didn't know what she was talking about. I looked at myself and I was speechless, I saw blue scales on my body, large golden wings and lighter blue scales on the inside of the wings, I looked at my hands to see silver claws, I walked right past her and looked in the bathroom mirror I had a reptilian face with golden horns, brown eyes with a white underbelly.

I realized right then and there that I was a dragon, to be honest, I was a little excited but scared at the same time. I heard my mom yell "Some animal broke into my house and ate my son!" I saw that she was on the phone. I thought this was a dream, it had to be, to make sure I rammed my head against the wall, surprisingly it didn't really hurt, but I wasn't dreaming, this was the real deal. I knew my mom called 911 because I heard police sirens from a mile away, I ran to the window and there they were, coming in one by one in the cul de sac. I don't know why but somehow I decided it'd be best to break through the window, I saw the policemen draw their pistols and aim at me, I knew I couldn't stay there any longer so I ran for my life.

I heard my mom yell "There it is! Shoot it!" and next thing you know I'm being covered in bullet holes. I ran through the cul de sac with them still shooting at me, after what felt like an eternity (when in reality it was only a few seconds) I was met with a dead end, a wall that was supporting a freeway. A few seconds later I saw them surround me, there was nowhere to run or hide, I looked at my wings but since I didn't know how to fly, I disregarded it. Frantically I looked left and right but I thought of nothing. On some sort of instinct I raised my wings and took flight, it was a bit of a struggle to keep me up in the air but I managed to rise 50 feet from the ground.

I was a little happy about it but the moment was soon gone when I saw a bullet go right past me, I flew for my life and went little higher before noticing a forest on my left. I decided to hide there in order to recuperate and see how much damage I had taken. Most of the rounds missed me while I was in flight and it seemed that they were out of ammo, I was relieved for a few moments and kept flying for the forest. It's a good thing I did because when I looked back I saw that the policemen were carrying rifles and started firing at me again. Rounds hit my body like crazy, what felt like hundreds of bullets hit my wings and tail, right then my vision started getting a little blurry but I saw that I was closer to the forest. They stopped firing at me so I relaxed a bit, even though I was bleeding uncontrollably and in so much pain. Then I heard another bullet, it was a direct hit to my chest, it went through my heart. I coughed blood and my vision got blurrier.

My strength was completely drained and I crash-landed in the forest, a tree branch hit my wing and somehow managed to rip it, I hit a boulder which broke my front legs and my back legs and landed in a river. At least the river was only a few inches deep, the water was cold and slow moving so blood just flowed right with it. I saw that I was next to a tree which gave me some shade, not that it helped me. "So... this is how my life will end huh..." I told myself, I was scared and started to cry, my vision was so blurry that everything looked like a blob. I closed my eyes, rested my head on the cool water and waited for my death. I heard footsteps, I thought the police found me and were coming to finish me off. I opened my eyes and I saw one purple blob and one black blob, the purple blob came at me faster and said "Cynder over here! Bring a red crystal! Hurry!" I heard the purple one say, I saw the black one go the opposite direction. "Cynder?" I thought "Could it be Spyro and Cynder?..., No it can't be...".

"Okay, try to stay with me! Don't close your eyes! Stay with me!" I heard the purple one urge.

Everything went dark.


	2. Chapter 2

I woke up and felt weak, however, I don't recognize the place I'm in, I was in a nice soft bed, it felt like sheep's wool. I was placed next to a window, however, it didn't have any glass, just a gaping rectangular hole. I saw an older blue dragon boiling some water next to me, in a deep and raspy voice he looked at me "Good, you're awake, I thought I was too late to save you since you lost a lot of blood." he observed, he opened a cabinet and grabbed a wooden bowl, he opened a drawer and grabbed a bag of green herbs. He opened the bag, and dropped the herbs in the boiling water and started stirring them.

"I'm sure you have a lot of questions but before that, drink this first." He said as he poured the liquid into the bowl and handed it to me. I hesitantly reached out and grabbed it, it was green and smelled horrible, I looked at him "Don't worry, it's not poisoned, if I wanted to kill you I'd do it a long time ago, it's medicinal." I lifted it to my mouth and drank slowly, it almost tasted like green tea. I felt my strength coming back to me seconds after I drank it. "Now that you drank it, we can talk, my name is Aquarius, as you can tell by my name, I'm a water dragon, a guardian to be exact." he said. "My name is Enoch" I introduced myself, "How did I get here?" I asked "After Spyro saw you close your eyes, he grabbed you and put you on his back, it's not important how he got you in the dragon realm, they brought you to me and I took care of the rest." he answered.

I started looking outside the window "Enjoying the view? I thought you were afraid of heights." I was startled, how did he know my fear of heights? I've barely talked to him, he kept staring at some weird pool, maybe that had something to do with it? "I know you're not from around here, you were once human, a regular teenager who just wanted to join the United States Marine Corps." He remarked, "How do you know all that?" I asked, "It's because of the pool, I can see what people are thinking. This is the pool of visions, however, I have a special skill that I can read people's minds without the pool whenever I want to." He answered "That's a little creepy if you ask me." I mumbled "You know, us dragons aren't too friendly with humans. Here in the realm, they hunt us just for fun, the only reason Spyro and Cynder helped you is because you were a dragon. When they brought you here I knew you were human, but I saw something in you that said you were different so I helped you." He commented, "I can't believe it..." I replied, "Believe it, we got fed up with humans hunting us down in the past so we retreated, eventually finding this realm and we hid ourselves from humanity. Somehow humans got in here and started hunting us down again, that's why we have a wall surrounding the place, Warfang, the city of dragons. Probably the only city in the realm that has maybe seventy five percent of all dragons." He said.

I got off the bed and I started looking around the place and saw the pool, it was about the size of a kiddie pool, however, the reflection was different, I saw myself as the marine I always wanted to be, along with what I could only assume was the squad I was assigned to. It looked like I was in Afghanistan, I had my rifle in my hand which looked like an M4. The Taliban were shooting at us and we shot back, my squad mates got hit pretty bad and I was the only one standing, I was calling for a medic but nobody came, I threw a smoke grenade to the ground, and picked up a squad mate and headed back to base and did the same with the rest of my squad mates. However, when I got my last squad mate in the base an RPG round hit my legs and blew them clean off, some other marines got me to the medics and patched me up but that's when it ended.

"What was that?" I asked "A vision of what your future should have been if you stayed human, you would get everything you wanted and join the marines but at the cost of your legs." He answered "Oh..." I was a little shocked. "Anyways, now that you're a dragon, you have to live like a dragon, walk like a dragon, and speak like a dragon, also you need to learn your breath weapon and how to use it, I will teach you. You can choose to live under my roof or live someplace else but either way, you'll learn" He insisted. I considered my choices, should I choose to stay and live in here I'd have to adjust living with a dragon, or I could live in a different place and fend for my own, I would have to get my own food, water, and shelter. "I think I'll stay here." I answered, he smiled and said "Very well, you'll wake up at 5 in the morning and learn the basics then, when you are ready, I will teach you how to use your wings and your breath weapon." Waking up at 5 in the morning again? what a drag... "Fine..." I uttered with a sigh.

"Well in the meantime, Spyro and Cynder are on their way here, to ask you how you're feeling and give you a tour of the city." he said while looking at the pool again "I look forward to it." I replied. A few minutes later Spyro and Cynder knocked on the wood front door, "Hello you two, come in." Aquarius welcomed. Spyro thanked him and they walked in. Cynder looked around and saw me "So, are you feeling better?" Asked Cynder "Way better, if you guys haven't come I would have been long gone, thanks." I thanked them after I drank a bowl of water, "Well we were walking along the river until Cynder saw a trail of red, obviously that wasn't normal so we followed it and we found you, it was a good thing we did. When you closed your eyes I thought we were too late." Informed Spyro. "Well I'm still alive aren't I? Or am I just dreaming?" I said jokingly, Aquarius pinched my tail with two claws "Ow! What was that for!?" I asked, "To make sure you're not dreaming" Chuckled Aquarius. "What a lousy way of doing it..." I thought "Will you stay and join us for breakfast?" asked Aquarius "We'd love to!" Answered Spyro.

We went down stairs and it looked like it had a fire pit, it was a little strange, but I figured that dragons wouldn't even know how to use a stove and were taught since hatchling hood how to use the fire pit without burning down the house. He got what looked like a frying pan and put some vegetables like asparagus, my least favorite vegetable because it always got stuck in my throat and were hard to chew for me, carrots and other things like that. Aquarius then got a few slivers of meat from a compartment in the ground that was cold, around the temperature a fridge would have, and then grabbed what looked like an oil container and poured some oil on the pans. Then he laid down the slivers of meat on another pan. Spyro lit the fire in the pit and set up some metal bars on top of the fire for which I could only assume it was for holding the pans. I sniffed the air and it smelled like bacon, at first I was revolted but I didn't show it, since I was, well let's just say allergic to any pork product, that goes for another series of meat, but then I sniffed some more and it was actually turkey bacon, a meat I wasn't "allergic" to. It smelled so good that I think I was almost drooling, the food finished cooking and Aquarius got some wooden plates and put the food on there.

Aquarius killed the fire and set the food on plates on the floor, Aquarius clawed a sliver of turkey bacon in an effort to show how dragons ate their food. I closed my eyes and said grace in my mind which was what I always did before I ate. I clawed the sliver of turkey bacon and put it in my mouth. Every bite of the turkey bacon exploded with flavor, even the asparagus, my fangs were so sharp that it cut the vegetables before they touched my tongue, Aquarius was a good cook indeed. After breakfast Cynder started with "So, do you want a tour of the city? We could show you around."

"Sure!" I answered.

Aquarius smiled and opened the door "Have fun you three!", we went outside the house and I smelled the fresh air. You know, for a city it wasn't a polluted smog filled one like on Earth, but there were no vehicles or anything like that, but I'm pretty sure that's because it was a dragon city so everyone was either walking or flying. They gave me a walk around the wall showing me all the great monuments and the history behind them. By the time we finished it was maybe six in the afternoon, and we started at three, "You know, you could have made it easier on yourself by flying on your wings" Informed Cynder, I felt so dumb! I forgot I had wings! I had to quickly make up an excuse because I didn't think it was a good idea to reveal that I was human "You're right but I wanted to experience it by walking".


	3. Chapter 3

When they finished giving me a tour of Warfang, Cynder remembered that they didn't give me their names "Oh how rude of us, we saved you and brought you here but we don't know each other's names, I'm sorry about that. I'm Cynder, and this charming, handsome purple dragon here, is Spyro" Introduced Cynder, Spyro grinned and blushed a little, "Oh, that's fine, my name's Enoch, it's a pleasure to meet you", we walked back making small talk, we talked about relationships, what dragons like to do, and other stuff like that. "We'll see you later" said Spyro as they left me at Aquarius' house, I smiled and went inside.

"So, did you like the tour?" Asked Aquarius who looked like he just got up from a nap, I sighed. "You... didn't like it?" he looked confused.

"I... loved it!" I burst "I gotcha didn't I?" I laughed

"You did" he chuckled "What did you like about it?" he continued

"The history behind everything, I've always loved history for some reason, mostly when it's related to a certain conflict, like how the wall was built to protect the citizens from the humans who hunt them down. It seems that there's history behind everything here, the parks, even a few houses" I marveled

"Warfang does have a lot of history" remarked Aquarius,

I was a bit tired so I went upstairs and took a small nap.

Aquarius walked upstairs and saw me happily sleeping according to him, so he just decided to wake me up by yelling "Get off the ground maggot! This is not a time for sleeping! It's a time for being awake and alert!"

I jumped up yelling "Aye aye sir!" and ran into a wall, the next thing I saw was Aquarius laughing "I can't believe you actually did it! You were dreaming about being a soldier weren't you?" He asked

"Maybe a little" I said bashfully

"Well, it is time to train, today I'm going to teach you about flying, and how to fly." We got out of the house and out of the city, we stopped at a grassy plain next to the wall of Warfang. "First thing is first, you need to learn about wind currents, updrafts and other stuff like that" He started, he lectured me about it for what felt like an hour "So, the easiest way is to find an updraft, glide on it while angling your wings slightly upward and flap them to generate lift" he instructed. I did my best to find and felt an updraft, and glided toward it doing what Aquarius told me to, I took flight for the second time, it was exciting

"Last time you flew, it was out of fear that you would get shot and killed, you didn't know how you did it but somehow you flew, I am teaching you how to fly willingly" He looked at me "Try flying a few circles so you can get to know how to use your wings" he continued. I executed the circles perfectly, after a few nose dives that is... flying wasn't as easy as I thought. "Looks like your a quick learner. I like that" He observed "Try to land now" He told me.

"How, exactly do I do that?"I asked "Don't ask me, I believe in learning on the job, I only helped you to take flight, the rest is up to you" He said in a nonchalant manner

"oh come on!" I growled.

It took a few minutes but I managed to think of a way to land, I could only think of one way, stop flapping my wings, and that's what I did, landing hard on my back. "That's more of a crash than a land, unless you're trying to break your wings, then I suggest you don't do it again" he warned "Try again" He commanded, I got back on my legs and flew again, through a few more crashes and nose dives I finally figured it out, thanks to Aquarius. "Use your wings!" he hinted. _Wings?_ I thought _How could I use them?_ I looked at both my wings and started to glide forwards, tilting my front wings down, at first I tilted down too fast and ended in another nose dive, but gradually I started tilting them slower until I found the perfect time to tilt my wings, by the time I finished that it was dusk.

"Good work" He complimented "Let's head home, it's getting late" he advised "do you want to walk home or-" he couldn't finish his sentence since I interrupted him "Heck no! I'm flying all the way home, no more walking for me!" I told him, I spread my wings and took flight again all the way home. It felt good flying without being shot at, the nice cool air on my scales felt pleasant.

For the next few days he taught me things I would do every day in life while I was a dragon, things like fishing, scavenging and which plants can be medicinal for dragons and which aren't, how to plant and cultivate crystals, the currency that dragons use, what dragons like to trade and barter with. He also taught me what is socially acceptable, all of that. It was then time to practice my breath weapon, aka my elemental attack. I and Aquarius went to the same grassy field that I practiced flying in, "Now" He started "Something you didn't know is that when dragons hatch, most of the time the color of the scales determine what their breath weapon will be, for example, if a dragon is born with red scales it will most likely be fire, if a dragon is born with yellow scales, that dragon will most likely have an electricity breath weapon. As you can see, I hatched with blue scales, so I have the breath weapon of water, judging by your scales which is blue, light blue to be exact, your element is either these three, ice, water or wind, maybe all three." He observed "For water dragons to breathe water, you need water right? Well yes, for water dragons you need to acquire water somehow whether by drinking or by actually just breathing air. When you breathe in, water vapor floods in you including oxygen and the rest of the good stuff. Water vapor goes into a special compartment in your stomach that is designed for water and it remains in there as a liquid. It also goes in there if you drink water. What dragons do then is they concentrate on the compartment and heat up the water, if they want to eliminate their target that is, or just want to get fast hot water without boiling it normally, if not you can just shoot it without heating it. Try firing a non-heated water stream at a tree" He instructed.

I closed my eyes, took a deep breath and concentrated, a few seconds later I saw a lukewarm beam of water spewing out of my mouth and heading straight for a tree. The water hit and the concentrated water blew a hole right through the tree a few seconds after the water hit, "Did... I just do that?" I marveled. "You have" He affirmed "Now let me warn you, most dragons can only carry one breath weapon, if they acquire more than one then it can lead to some...bad side effects, one of them being death. If a regular dragon has more than one breath weapon and the dragon uses it, the dragon will slowly destroy its insides, therefore slowly killing itself each time the dragon uses a breath weapon"

I was shocked "So if I acquire more than one breath weapon, will I die eventually because of it?".

Aquarius studied me for a few seconds "I don't think so since you're not originally a dragon, but it would be best to play safe, and if you do you'll start to feel immense amounts of pain. However there is a way of taking out the breath weapon through a crystal, at the cost of all your breath weapons, it's a rare crystal though" I decided to play it safe, I didn't want to die a slow and painful death!

For the next few days I practiced my water breath weapon in streams but it was time for multiple shots "You know how to make a stream of water, that's good" He said "But a stream will only get you so far in combat, stream attacks can easily be dodged by getting behind a boulder or a similar object, you need to learn how to attack with multiple shots, if you attack with multiple shots, the opponent can try to move out of the way but you can anticipate the movements and fire" he finished

"I'll give it a _shot_ " I chuckled

I closed my eyes, concentrated on the water and fired a stream again "You'll need to work on that..." observed Aquarius


	4. Chapter 4

A month passed and I still couldn't figure out how to fire multiple shots, at that point even Aquarius lost a little patience. That month I made good friends with Spyro and Cynder, they even gave me a few tips on using my breath weapon. One day while we were hanging out in the grassy field, I was practicing my water shots but could only get a focused stream, Cynder gave me a tip "Try closing your mouth when firing a stream then open your mouth at what you want to shoot at, then close your mouth again and repeat the process at the next target" She said. I closed my eyes and did the same procedure before and fired at a tree, and did what Cynder suggested at another tree, two lukewarm spheres of water hit the trees. I was surprised and a bit embarrassed, all I had to do was open and close my mouth, so simple a hatchling could do it! I put my head down in embarrassment "Don't be embarrassed Enoch, it's never easy learning how to use a breath weapon, even I had trouble learning them, and I'm the purple dragon, the one who's supposed to do everything" comforted Spyro.

Spyro was a rare purple dragon that was hatched every 100 generations. Being a purple dragon is not always easy, the purple dragon is a being that is supposed to be a protector and be all powerful since a purple dragon can learn up to four breath weapons. Spyro's were fire, ice, electricity, and earth. Spyro and Cynder were known as saviors of the realm, Spyro ranked a bit higher in the savior status because of their past, their story is pretty long so I'll keep it short. In the year of the dragon, a purple egg was laid in the dragon temple along with other eggs, one guardian of the temple, in particular, was excited for the hatching of the purple egg. However a night before Malefor(who was the purple dragon before him) sent his army of apes to destroy the purple dragon's egg, the massive ape army attacked and ransacked the temple smashing every egg in their site, but two eggs were saved, those eggs belonged to Spyro and Cynder. That particular guardian whose name was Ignitus saved Spyro's egg and got out of the temple to send the egg adrift in an upside-down mushroom cap in a river. Eventually, a family of fireflies found his egg, they watched him hatch and raised him as their own. Cynder, however, wasn't so lucky, her egg was spared and was brought to Malefor and as soon as Cynder was hatched Malefor corrupted the poor hatchling with evil, turning her into a giant slender black dragoness made to do Malefor's bidding. Things, like destroy entire armies, kill innocent lives and stuff like that.

As Spyro grew he found out he wasn't a dragonfly but a dragon, so he went off to find his own kind with his dragonfly brother Sparx (who was born on the same day when Spyro hatched) and soon found Ignitus, Ignitus informed on what was going on with dragon kind and it was Spyro's job to help out. After they got to the temple which was almost reduced to ruins, Spyro began training with his first breath weapon, fire. Ignitus told him that he needed to rescue the rest of the guardians, Cyrill, an ice dragon, Terrador, an earth dragon and Volteer, an electricity dragon. His first target was Volteer, then he rescued Cyrill and then Terrador. As soon as everyone was gathered up and he learned three more breath weapons Ignitus was captured and he set off to find Ignitus. He found him but Cynder laid a trap, as soon as Ignitus was free, Cynder attacked and Spyro fought her, eventually defeating her and freeing her from the evil that was corrupting her, reducing her to a regular, average size hatchling about the same height, length, and width.

Spyro rescued her also since the area that they were in was being destroyed. They brought her to the temple and she was raised there for at least a month until she decided that she didn't belong there and set off on a journey to find out where she belonged, Spyro tried to stop her but Cynder wouldn't change her mind. That morning Malefor's apes attacked the temple but it was successfully defended with no casualties, for the dragon side anyway. Spyro decided to find Cynder and bring her back to the temple along with Sparx. Spyro was then put in a ship after being captured by pirates, he was made to fight other beings like a gladiator until he found out that Cynder was inside the ship and Spyro and Cynder were made to fight again. That time though Cynder had a plan, they pretended to fight until everyone dropped their guard, but it was interrupted by Malefor's apes again and captured her. He fought his way off the ship and found her in a place called the _Well of Souls_ where he also met Gaul. Malefor's commander of his ape army, he fought Gaul, killing him with dark powers that he unlocked and saved Cynder, the Well of Souls was collapsing however and there wasn't enough time to escape so what did he do?

He trapped himself, Cynder and Sparx in a crystal for five years where they somehow grew to adolescent dragons, five years later more of Malefor's soldiers found the crystal that the trio was in, broke them out and put Spyro and Cynder in shackles bonded by a green magic beam. When the trio woke up a few minutes later they ended up fighting and getting back up from a guy who was an anthropomorphic lynx named Hunter, fought a golem, got to Warfang just before a battle with Malefor's army against the dragons and moles of Warfang, defended it and eventually found Malefor and put a stop to him. Although Ignitus was a casualty, he gave up his life for the trio to traverse a wall of fire leading to Malefor's lair, that's pretty much the whole story.

When I finally figured out and practiced multiple projectiles, I got hungry so I went up to the stream, it must've been some sort of salmon run because the whole river was full of salmon. "Anyone hungry?" I asked

"I could eat" Answered Spyro "What about you Cynder?", Cynder had her eyes closed and with the most serious face she could ever make and answered "No thanks, I'm on a diet"

"Oh really? You weren't on a diet when we went to that buffet three days ago" He remarked, Cynder shot him a cold glare "If I remember correctly you had, one, two, three... four helpings of food, not the healthiest either" he added, Cynder shot a projectile of fear fire (which was a type of lost breath weapon left by Malefor's darkness) at Spyro, which Spyro barely dodged "Anyways!" Exclaimed Spyro "I think you've been on a diet for more than enough time, if you keep fasting like that, the next thing you know you'll become bulimic and start throwing up all over the place, and contrary to what some females believe, it's not healthy", Cynder sighed and walked next to us, for she was a bit distanced "I guess I can eat one or two" she succumbed.

"I'll look for dry wood, you two can stay here and get the fish" she added as she went into the forest, we did as we were told as we did some small talk "Cynder's a bit of a hothead isn't she?" I asked

"Not really, only if you provoke her like I did. That was a bit stupid in hindsight, even though I was just teasing her a bit she knows I love her" he answered

"Oh, are you two getting married?", Spyro blushed a bit

"Y-yeah, in around six months, we're young, we know that we've got our whole lives ahead of us, but we just want to be together for all eternity, raise a family and grow old together, it's a bit cliché, I know" he answered.

Around thirty minutes later Cynder came back with the wood standing on her hind legs, she dropped the wood and got back on all fours and told us that she felt she was being watched, she told us that while she was gathering wood she was humming to herself a song from when she was a hatchling the guardians taught her on her stay in the temple until she heard a twig snap. She stopped and looked around but saw nothing so she continued humming to herself, as she gathered the last log she heard what she thought was sprinting and she turned around but nothing, fearing a bit for her life she stood on her hind legs to make herself look bigger and intimidating and walked back as best as she could on her hind legs all the way to where we were. As Spyro comforted Cynder I put the wood in a Platform formation so the salmon can have a somewhat proper flat area to cook on, after I finished the log formation Spyro lit the fire and since we didn't have a frying pan or anything we just scaled them with our claws and put it on the fire, a few minutes later I caught the scent of fresh salmon cooking. It started to put my saliva to work, I saw Cynder so close to the food she almost drooled all over it... almost.

Around 30 minutes later it was time to chow down! Spyro and Cynder speared the fish on one claw however I, being a human before, grabbed a pointy stick and skewered it through the salmon, they looked at me like they saw the strangest thing ever "It's just how I like to eat fish sometimes" I said jokingly, while we were eating I decided to ask the big question "So" I started, "how many hatchlings are you planning to have?" Cynder almost choked on her salmon

"Spyro told you huh?"

"Actually, I asked him while you were out getting wood".

Cynder cleared her throat "Well, to answer your question, we're thinking of maybe one or two, I'm hoping for a boy and a girl or just a girl, however, Spyro wants a boy and a girl or just a boy, and if we do only have an egg and it turns out to be a boy, I'll hate Spyro forever"She said in a serious tone.

Spyro had a grave look on his face "I'm joking sweetie" She laughed "Either way I'll be happy"

"Have you thought of names for them?" I asked

"We haven't thought of it yet, perhaps it'll come to us when they hatch, or else we'll just call them hatchling or little one" he joked

"I hope not" I humored.

After lunch, I managed to eat three salmon, Spyro about three and a half and Ms. Diet aka Cynder ate a total of four whole 51 inch salmon, and I thought I ate a lot! I put out the fire with a sphere of water from my breath weapon after that, we just relaxed and laid down on the grass. I was thinking of telling them my past for a few days then but I didn't know if they would believe me and accept me or not accept me, they could think I was playing around but it had to come someday and I decided that today was the day I tell them my past. "Aquarius told me that dragons are being killed by humans day by day outside Warfang, is that true?" I asked

Spyro sighed "It's true, I don't know why they do this to us, we've done nothing to them, but some dragons can't afford to live in Warfang. For some dragons, the trip is too far, even by flight, sometimes they can't afford to live in the city, as you may have noticed things are a bit pricey here and they don't want to live in poverty, every day in the city you can sometimes see poor dragons who have had their homes and family taken away by humans. Living in, not even houses, but just pieces of scrap metal or wood they can find and make some sort of place to sleep in at least. Because of humans, Dragon kind has been affected drastically. If I saw a human I would tear him limb from limb!"He growled.

I gulped now I didn't want to tell my past but I couldn't keep making up stories of my fake past, I felt like I needed to tell them my real past, my human past, whatever happens, happens. "I've got to get something off my chest... I'm... a human" I said

"No you're not, you're a dragon, just like us" protested Spyro

"No, no, no, you don't get it" I contradicted "Before you found me in the river I was a human, I formed into the dragon you see now overnight, when my mom saw me,she panicked and called law enforcement, even though I tried to explain to her what happened, she wouldn't listen. So I broke through the window out of instinct and ran off until they saw me and started shooting at me, so I took flight in an effort to escape but I was shot down moments later and landed in a forest where I broke my hind legs, I dragged myself to a river and decided that I would die there, until you two found me, I wouldn't be alive if it wasn't for you"

I finished. Spyro had a stern look on his face growled "Maybe we should have just left you! For all I know you're story was a lie to get our sympathy and act as a spy for the humans to get in our defenses and stab us all in the back! All humans are the same, they lead you into a false sense of security then just leave you for dead! Come on Cynder, we're leaving." Cynder had a sad look on her face and followed Spyro.

I was about to walk away until I saw a red beam on Cynder's head "Cynder watch out!" I exclaimed, I ran and pushed her away from the beam and got hit by a .50 BMG on my arm which became shattered. I screamed in pain but looked angrily at where the shot came from and saw around four adult men running away, one carrying a very long sniper rifle. "Stay here!" I barked at the dragons and started running at furious speeds at the humans. Something was different though, I felt different, I couldn't put a finger on it. As I got close enough I pounced on the sniper's back and managed to grab his knife on his chest before he threw me off and into a tree trunk "you made a big mistake kid!" He shouted as he pointed his pistol at me which looked like an M1911, the rest of his squad cocked their rifles which looked like Steyr AUGs. I had to think carefully, one wrong move would send me to an early grave.

I looked at the knife for a second and looked at them, I threw the knife at the sniper's neck, killing him after that I grabbed his sidearm as he fell and shot one of them in the head. Why did I kill them? Well they did try to kill Cynder, one of my friends, people could do whatever they want to me to a certain point and I wouldn't care, but do something to my friends then watch your back, because I'm coming for you! Anyway, after killing the other one, I turned to another dragonslayer who tried to pull the trigger but it looked like the rifle was jammed because nothing came out. He switched to his bayonet and rushed at me. I tried to shoot him in the knee but I missed and he continued to rush at me and stabbed my non-shattered arm, my arm was still usable but it was in a good amount of pain from the stab. I tried to shoot the slayer in the stomach but nothing was coming out, I was out of ammo, the slayer kept driving his bayonet blade through my arm. I front kicked him in the groin, he fell down rolling over in pain and the blade slid out of my arm. I walked over to the sniper's neck which had his knife in it, I grabbed the knife and walked over to the slayer and finished him off with a stab to the neck.

With adrenaline still flowing through my veins, I threw the handgun away and examined their gear, they did use a Steyr AUG, a bullpup design rifle, that's when the trigger is in front of the magazine well, contrary to a normal rifle like the M16, I took the Steyr and slung it on my back with the leather sling it carried, hopefully it wasn't dragon scale leather because it sure felt like it! Took their ammo and put it in my pockets (By that time I figured out I was a human being again), cleaned the knife on my clothing and took them as trophies. I left the bodies there as a warning not to mess with the dragons for they had a fearless protector on their side and walked back to Spyro and Cynder.

As I walked out of the forest they gasped and walked a few steps away from me, I sighed "Look, I mean no harm to any dragon. I have devoted my life to finding a dragon, even though it was unpopular and other people bullied me because of it, now that I've seen more than one and know that they're in danger, I will devote my entire life to protect your kind." I stood at attention, "On this very day, I swear that I will protect the dragons from all harm, even if it costs my life, until the day I die!" I finished, Spyro still looked a bit suspicious "How do we know if we can trust you, I mean you just killed your own kind, what stops you from breaking your oath?"

I sighed "When you swear something, you make a promise to God, and that's something you can't break. If that doesn't reassure you, I don't know what will" I said

"I believe him" commented Cynder "I know how it feels to have a bad reputation when it wasn't even you that caused it"

Spyro sighed "Your case is different Cynder, Malefor corrupted you to destroy his enemies"

Cynder frowned "Maybe Spyro, but it's similar. Someone was ruining my reputation and make me look like a vicious killer when I'm really something else. Humans did the same to Enoch, I bet if he wanted to kill us and more of our kind, he would have done it a long time ago. Besides, since Aquarius is a guardian and has access to a pool of visions I bet he saw his true intentions, why else would Aquarius trust him?"

Spyro conceded "I guess you're right Cynder. I'm sorry for acting that way Enoch, can you forgive me?"

I smiled "Of course I will Spyro, you're one of my best friends after I came to this realm. Now about these wounds?", Spyro examined the wounds "Do they hurt? He asked

"No, I feel fine, no pain at all. Of course it hurts! Extremely! I'm just trying to act calm and collected" I shouted

"Okay, okay, calm down there, we'll get you a red crystal in just a second" He reassured me, he checked in the bag they brought for any but he had a nervous smile "Cynder? Where are the crystals?"

Cynder had a puzzled look on her face "I thought you put them in there" she said.

"Great..." I sighed

"Sorry man" Spyro apologized "Looks like we're going to have to cut this short" I looked at where the sun was positioned, it was sunset, and we came in midday, how long were they planning on staying there? "It's fine, now let's see if I can turn back to my dragon form" I closed my eyes and concentrated on my other form. I heard my bones break and reform into dragon's bone, I grunted from the pain of the whole process, I opened my eyes and saw my skin turn blue and then turn to blue scales, my nails turning to claws, I felt two horns starting to grow on my head, started to grow a tail and felt my wings sprout from my back, I looked forward and my vision started to get blurry, and returned clear, I could see over 50 miles clearly, transformation was complete "Does the transformation hurt?" Asked Cynder "Yes, quite a bit, I'm going to have to get used to that"


	5. Chapter 5

I woke up to Aquarius flipping me off my bed "About time you wake up" Commented Aquarius. I groaned and slowly got on my feet in dragon form, "Maybe you could have woken me up by not flipping me off the bed?"

"Well you never woke up no matter what I did so this was my last choice, would you have preferred a bucket of water?" he asked in a jokingly tone.

After I and the dragon couple got home, Aquarius grabbed a red crystal which I then broke to heal my shattered arm. I told him about the incident and what happened but he acted like he already knew about it (He probably saw it through the pool of visions) and wasn't surprised or shocked when I told him about the slayers. I'm pretty sure a regular person or dragon would be shocked when they heard a person close to them killed someone.

We had breakfast, waited 30 minutes later and proceeded to train at the same place "Today we begin CQC or close quarter combat training. Normally dragons don't fight each other, but just in case you do fight another dragon, you'll know how to counter and defend yourself." informed Aquarius, as we moved past the normal grassy field we trained in "Where are we going, master?" I asked, he gave no answer and we stopped at the place I fought the humans. Aquarius started examining it "This is where you transformed into a human and fought them, correct?" I nodded, "When Cynder was almost killed it must have triggered something in you that made you transform into a human for some unknown reason, unlocking your human form. Why did you fight them? You could have gotten yourself killed."

I frowned "What else was I supposed to do? If I let them escape they could have tried that again and successfully killed her" I looked at the bodies "Besides like you said the humans in this realm just wanted to hunt dragons for fun and exterminate the species. Before all this happened all I wanted to do was just meet a dragon in person, now that I know they're being killed for basically no reason at all, I want to help and defend dragons."

Aquarius sighed "Don't you think you could have let them off with a warning instead of killing them?"

"Hey, I'm one of those people that don't really care what happens to themselves up to a certain point but if anyone messes with my friends and family, they're going down" I explained.

It's true I could have left them bruised and battered and left alive for a warning but, one like I said they could have tried again and kill Cynder and more dragons and two, considering my experience with the humans in the future, it was probably best to kill them, their leader would have killed them anyway. Aquarius was not satisfied with my answer and we kept arguing all the way to the area.

We got to what looked like a giant hot spring with one single piece of land in the middle "This is where we're going to train for close quarter combat" Aquarius told me like nothing happened at all. He spread his wings and flew to the platform, I followed him. "The most vulnerable part of the body of a dragon is its underbelly, that's the part that has softer scales and a simple sword could get through it at full force, once a dragon is flipped over it's as good as dead. Your job is to flip me over, it's as simple as that" He explained. "Too easy!" I commented, grinning.

"Is it?" He asked "Well then I suppose we'll be out of here in a few minutes then"

I tried to ram him but he grabbed me by his tail and threw me into the water "Oh come on, you think I would stand here and take it?" He asked "Don't forget, I'm a guardian so I know how to fight better than you do, and I'm not even using my full power! Also, I'd get out of there if I were you unless you want to be boiled alive" He warned. He was right it felt like the water was being heated by a volcano! I quickly swam out of the water and onto the platform where Aquarius stood on "Next time, pick a place where the water is lukewarm at least!" I groaned.

"Noted" He said.

Over and over I tried to flip him over but to no avail. Until I decided to shoot some water projectiles at him so he would be too distracted, that would be the time to strike. I fired water and ran at full speed and rammed him, just before I hit him he shook off the water and flew up immediately. I ran too fast and couldn't stop so I ran off the platform, went on the water like a stone that was skipped across a body of water, ran into a tree and fell to the ground. Before I could regain consciousness I felt something give in under me and the ground collapsed into a large cave in the ground "Note to self... never go too fast" I groaned.

Aquarius, concerned for me flew to where I fell

"Are you alright?" He asked

"Yeah, surprisingly, maybe just a few bruises but that's about it" I said.

I got up to my feet and noticed strange writings on the wall "Master? What is this?". Aquarius walked up to the writings and examined them "This is... ancient dragon writing, around two hundred years old".

I got curious "Can you read it?" I asked

"Barely, because it's so old it's a little hard to read" he examined it more carefully "Here's what I **can** read. A stranger will be cast out from his homeland... Raised by...beings... loved ones." he read.

We got out a few minutes later and went back to training. After falling maybe a few more hundred times in the water I finally managed to flip him over by faking a rush, moving under him and rammed upward. Okay, so I didn't really flip him over because he caught himself in the air but one: it was getting dark and we were both tired and two, a normal dragon probably wouldn't think of catching himself with his or her wings. The dragon would land on its back and it would be history by a well-placed bullet or blade.

After that I kept having recurring nightmares that involved Aquarius, I always woke up screaming and pretty soon Aquarius got a bit tired of it and asked me what was wrong. As I explained the dream he ended with "Let's hope it's just a nightmare and not a vision of a future"


	6. Chapter 6

As six months passed I forgot all about my dream. I've gotten stronger and smarter; dragon life wasn't as different from my human life, I still had to do academics but I also had to learn combat. It was at that day I and Aquarius were training for a bit in the field we always trained in, he carved out wooden dummies with his claws and set them up in the area, along with some obstacles like a log, a few pits and everything needed for a combat obstacle course. On a scale of one to ten, my agility and speed would be 7 out of 10, I've only been beaten Spyro in a race once, Spyro is a very fast dragon on air(around 300 miles per hour) I barely beat him, I got too cocky and challenged Cynder to a race; at the end of the whole ordeal, I felt my wings were trying to kill me! My strength would be 8 out of 10, I didn't dare challenge Aquarius, I knew my limits and I think he would probably do more than bruise me if I fought him.

As I split wooden dummies in half and dodged sticks and stones thrown by Aquarius I then remembered it was Spyro's and Cynder's wedding day. I reminded Aquarius and we quickly got ready and headed for the wedding chapel. It wasn't the size of one of those cheap drive-through wedding chapels you see on Las Vegas or L.A; it was huge, around the size of a Catholic chapel. We quickly got to the door of the church and calmly walked in. It looked like the ceremony was starting as Spyro was standing on the stage, the happiest he can be. The wedding march song played and Cynder came out the door with a crown of flowers on her head. She was obviously not wearing a wedding dress since, well she's a dragoness, neither was Spyro in a suit. The wedding proceeded as any regular human wedding, they said their vows and Spyro slipped a ring through her claw. As soon as the priest was starting to say "I now pronounce you ma-" He couldn't finish his sentence. We heard a loud explosion outside the church, we heard war cries and felt vibrations under our feet.

We all ran out of the church to see what was happening but couldn't see anything, it was foggy, like a giant mist descended on the whole area. It wasn't foggy when we got into the church building, I started wondering the cause of all the commotion until I saw the ones responsible for it. Humans, -dragon slayers to be exact- started coming out of the thick fog, the dragon soldiers started rushing to attack the slayers. The foe made short work of them, blasting them out of the sky with rockets, the dragons fell dead with some of their limbs missing. After that the slayers started going into houses, screams were choked out; as soon as that happened the humans came out soaked in dragon blood, my nightmare was coming true.

We all scattered into different directions, Aquarius and I soon got into our house and I started looking for the Steyr AUG I took from the slayers that day but Aquarius got to it first, "I think you're gonna need this" He tossed the rifle by the cow leather sling I attached to the rifle (since the previous one was dragon leather). I turned to my human form and grabbed it, it was time to fulfill my never-ending vow. I slung the rifle on my back and walked out, Aquarius ran out "Be careful out there!" I cautioned, Aquarius gave me a look that said "Don't worry about me!" and ran out into the battle. The deafening sound of rifles, machine guns, and rockets filled the air, I looked around for the enemy. I soon saw a group of slayers go in a house and I followed them in, but I was too late they've already killed a family of four, including the hatchlings! I was full of rage and stabbed one in the back with my bayonet and fired a round, killing him. There were two more in the room. I turned to my dragon form and rushed at them, slitting their necks open with my razor-sharp claws. I got out of the house and turned back into my original form, I walked into the fog which soon disappeared.

The next thing I saw was that I was surrounded by slayers, they saw the rifle I had in my hands and saw me as a threat they pointed their rifles at me. I grinned and took a look at my surroundings, I saw a few pieces of fallen buildings, none that could cover me however so I thought the next best thing. I got on my knees and raised my AUG over my head, one of them kicked me and I landed on my face; they started tying my hands with rough ropes, they dropped their guard and put their rifles aside (what a bunch of idiots) I took form of a dragon which tore off the ropes that bound me. "Get some!" I shouted, I grabbed one of them and threw them into a wall; I tail smacked what looked like a strange mace with downward spikes off one of their hands which flew into another one's face. I grabbed a slayer with my jaws and bit with full force, chomping him in half; I spit his crimson remains out of my mouth and used my breath weapon on them, killing all but one. The man quivered with fear, I grabbed him with my tail and looked at him straight in the eyes "Don't you EVER come back here again!" I threw him 200 feet away from me, he slowly got up and ran away as best he could. As soon as I was done with them I have killed 30 slayers in total. What did it feel like? Well I felt nothing, apathy, they were killing innocent lives; the lives I swore to protect.

In the hour; I saw more and more dead dragon bodies, soldier, and civilian, seeing that only fueled my anger and hate toward the slayers. I heard more shots fired and ran toward it, as I was in human form at that time. I saw Spyro and Cynder fighting off some slayers, I decided to help out and stabbed one in the chest from behind, "need some help?" I asked as the slayer fell dead

"We could always use a helping hand!" Said Cynder as she tackled one to the ground and finished him off with a blast of fear fire.

I killed as many slayers I could until running out of ammo, I switched to my bayonet and initiated CQC. I can't believe I was acting so calmly! It scares me a bit when I think of it. As soon as we finished with them Spyro informed that a retreat was issued to all remaining soldiers to go into the underground catacombs "Hey, where'd Aquarius go? I haven't seen him in a while" asked Spyro. My eyes widened, I completely forgot about him! "I'm not sure, I'm going to go find him, we'll meet you there!".

I know what you're thinking, why would I leave one of the only dragon friends I had, alone to fend off the slayers. One, they were and still are powerful dragons and can take care of themselves in a fight, and two what would you have done!? I mean this was Aquarius, the dragon who had compassion on me, the one who took me in and treated me like one of his own; he had so many opportunities to kill me on the spot while he was treating me from my wounds and I was still unconscious at that point. He could have lied to me about seeing something in me, poison my food and kill me; but he didn't. Aquarius really loved me as his own hatchling, and with the current situation with slayers running everywhere and killing every dragon in sight; I feared the worst for Aquarius even if he was a guardian. I took flight, calling out his name but to no avail, my eyes started swelling with tears as I imagined the worst, I shook my head and growled; reassuring myself that he was okay.

I then saw a slayer with what looked like a 50 caliber sniper rifle on a tower, I flew down, hoping he didn't see me. I thought I was in the clear until a round flew a few inches above my head which knicked one of my horns. I quickly turned around and saw the slayer shooting at me, I flew up to him until I saw him about to pull the trigger, I barrel rolled out of the way and as soon as I was close enough to grab him, I grabbed him by his armpits with my claws and dropped him 500 hundred feet from the tower.

I continued the search for Aquarius until saw a blue spec from where I was, I quickly dived toward where I saw the spec and I saw some rubble over it. As I flew closer, I realized that the "spec" was Aquarius' upper half of his body. I landed and transformed into my human form and saw Aquarius who had closed eyes. I thought he was dead until I put my hand next to him and felt his warm breath on it. I was relieved and tried to wake him up by tapping on his nose, he slowly opened his eyes "Enoch... is that you?" He asked tiredly.

"Yes, it's me, how'd you get under all this?" I asked as I was removing a few bricks

"Well, it's a bit of a funny story actually... I was fighting the humans, and I wasn't paying attention to my surroundings, one of them pulled out what looked like a long cylindrical tube and out came an object which hit and blew up the tower I was in front of, the tower crushed them to death but as you can see it didn't kill me, just pinned me down. It may have also broken a wing or two... maybe one of my back legs" he explained and chuckled a bit "you would think a guardian would pay attention to his surroundings a bit more".

I gave him a slight smile "I'm getting you out of this, don't worry, as soon as I get you out of here we'll head to the underground catacombs and we'll be safe there"

Aquarius frowned "no, go on without me. I'll only slow you down, I'm too heavy for you to carry; even in your dragon form" he said

I couldn't believe what he was saying, why would he want me to leave him alone and with all the slayers around!? No way! "That is not an option master, I am getting you out of here and that's that!" I asserted.

"Listen to me will you! Even if you get me out of all this rubble, my weight will weigh you down making you slower and making both of us a target for them!" He argued

"then I'll put you down and fight them off! I've fought them before I can do it again!" I stated

"Say if you did fight them off, more will take their place and in greater numbers, no matter how many of them you fight off, more and more will come and you will die, leaving me to fend for myself! In my state, I'll be killed and your sacrifice will be in vain".

I kept taking off more and more rubble, from wooden beams to stone when I was close to freeing him, I heard footsteps all around; I looked behind me and I saw slayers surrounding us. I growled and took my knife out, I lunged at a slayer and stabbed his neck, but he kicked me to the ground before he fell down and bled out, another one took out his pistol and pointed it at my head "Don't. Even. Move" he warned. Aquarius, moved with rage shot a blast of scalding water at his face, so hot that his face started to melt. A dragon's water breath is not a thing to be messed with, boiling water on skin is bad enough but when it's heated by a dragon, you better say your prayers if he shoots you with it! The slayer screamed and about to touch his face but he fell dead, Aquarius, out of energy let his head fall to the ground, "Enoch... please run away, it's no use, they'll kill the both of us if we keep fighting".

I was about to answer him but I couldn't because as soon as I opened my mouth Spyro rammed through one of the slayers and grabbed me up by my dark blue cotton shirt. Spyro looked back and Aquarius nodded his head, Spyro looked forward and ran at full speed. Spyro is fast on air but less fast on land, about 120 miles per hour compared to his speed on air"Enoch!" I heard Aquarius shout "Thank you for giving this old dragon a happy and good life!", he smiled as a single tear ran down his face. A slayer then grabbed a sharp ax and came down at his head with full force, decapitating him "AQUARIUS! No!" I screamed. A few minutes later we were reaching the entrance to the underground catacombs, a series of caves where the citizens of Warfang could retreat to if Warfang were to be attacked or destroyed. Spyro saw the entrance about to close and blocked by a line of slayers "Well bud, this is your stop!" alerted Spyro

"What about you? Aren't you coming with me?" I asked

"I can't, not without Cynder, we became separated during a fight with the humans, I need to find her!" He explained

"But the door will be closed by then! You'll be trapped outside!" I warned

"Don't worry about us! You'll see the both of us again! I promise." The door was two-foot open "Throwing you off in 3...2...1!" He alerted as he threw me off his back and into the catacombs, I landed on my back and slid on the cold stone floor. The last thing I saw right before the doors closed was Spyro being maced and beat. I was all alone again.


	7. Chapter 7

I woke up after what felt like a few hours later, my wrists felt weird , I looked at my hands and saw rope. I craned my head and looked at my legs, and saw rope on them also, I was tied down. I looked at my surroundings, I saw dragons surrounding me, all of their faces were hateful faces, some were glares, some were growling, some even showing their razor sharp teeth. My heart beated so quickly I thought everyone could hear the thump. "He's a human" I heard one murmur

"What are we gonna do with him?" I heard another whisper

"Who. Are. You!?" an elder dragon with grey scales asked me, I went silent. The elder growled and smacked my face with his tail "I ask again!" He barked "Who are you, why have you come here and why have your people attacked us!?" The sting on my face from his tail hurt a small bit, but not too much, I sighed "Look" I started "You've got the wrong human, I would never hurt a dragon" I argued

"Don't try to pull the wool over our eyes human, your kind have been hunting us down since a century ago, we know all your dirty tricks. It always starts out with one human,you say nice things to us, we welcome you into our homes, only to stab us in the back a few moments later and bring your whole armada with you!"

He countered. I had nothing to say left, I knew for a fact that I would never even think of even hurling a stone at a dragon, much less a hatchling, but they didn't know that, how would I convince them? "Besides, we found the weapons they carry on you, one on your back and one on your hip, what do you have to say about that?" He continued

I looked to my far right and saw my Steyr AUG and knife just thrown carelessly to the ground

"Those are the weapons I took as trophies from other humans I killed, I used them to fight the invaders, as you can see I used it a lot" I referred mainly to my knife since it still had the blood of the dragon slayers I've killed.

"You probably killed dragons with it and then shed your own blood on it to mask the scent of dragon blood on your blade" He reasoned

"Look at me! do you see any scars or bleeding wounds to signify that I cut myself to do that!" I argued, the elder took a good look at me, growled and walked up to a light cyan dragoness

"Keep an eye on him!" he ordered.

Around 30 minutes later we heard banging and yelling on the catacomb doors "Get those doors open!" I heard someone order, I had a sinking feeling in my stomach that it was the slayers. I struggled and tried to untie the knots but with the current situation that both my hands were tied, I could only move my hands, my fingertips could barely reach the end of the rope. The dragoness noticed and ignored me. The banging stopped in around 10 minutes, but what felt like two minutes later I heard the whistle of rockets and an explosion on the doors, the dragons started to panic

"All dragons remain calm, and prepare to stand your ground!" The elder commanded, all dragons are required to learn combat and self defense but those are just beginner fighting skills, they could barely stand a chance against another dragon, mush less a human which is smaller and could easily get under a dragon and attack their underbelly, which for all of you that forgot, is a part of the dragon's body with the softest scales. "You can't fight them, much less the hatchlings, barely any of you lack the skill to fight against humans. They may be smaller than you, softer and squishier but you can't underestimate them, especially with their weaponry!" I fumed

"Silence human!" He growled "Say another word and we'll kill you on the spot!" He warned "Bring him over" he ordered.

The dragoness did as what was told and bit off the ropes, I stood up, I saw that there was a small oval like hole in the ground and a bar of iron in the middle of the hole, holding the ropes in place. The dragoness pushed me up to the elder dragon, when I got close to the elder, the dragoness stopped pushing me, the elder then hit me on my back which made me fall on my face. I got up and a few minutes later and the door was blasted open, I saw what looked like 30 humans starting to enter, a human who I assumed was the leader raised his hand, to halt the incoming foes and looked at me.

"We've taken one of your men hostage, if you leave now maybe we'll spare his life..." The elder stated.

The leader walked up to me and looked at me carefully, his eyes widened "So we finally meet... "He said, I had no idea what he was talking about, I looked at the elder and even he was surprised.

"It's a shame it has to end..." He sighed "kill them."

As soon as he said that, hundreds of bullets flew past me hitting the elder, because of his scales he didn't die but a second later I heard the sound of cracks and saw grey broken scales fall to the ground, exposing his soft flesh "Why!" were his last words as he fell dead to the ground. The leader grinned "Because every dragon is a horrible massacring being that deserves to be expunged, that's why! Kill them all!" He shouted, even more rounds fled past me, more innocent dragons fell dead. I heard someone shout my name, I looked around and saw Cyrill, he spoke with a noble voice, for lack of a better word. I quickly ran at him as fast as I could but looked back and saw a slayer raise his rifle at me but the leader pointed it down, he then told him something, something I will never know. I kept running and reached Cyrill "Look at this!" He flicked some rocks over with his tail to reveal a circle like stone frame with an indent of a handprint, I cautiously put my hand on the indent. As my hand was placed on the hole I felt a needle like pain on my palm, I quickly took my hand away from it and saw a needle quickly retreating into a hole, when that happened green ooze started to swirl in the frame. It started at a slow pace but it soon got quicker and quicker, until it filled the whole frame.

"I don't know where this leads, but it can't be worse than this!" He reasoned, he gave the command for everyone to get in the portal, one dragon reluctantly got in it and soon one after the other, but the slayers were still shooting and killing more dragons. I turned into my dragon form and attacked with multiple water shots, some slayers fell gravely wounded, some dead, I then switched to a water stream. I kept the slayers busy while the rest were trying to escape, in hindsight, probably not the smartest idea as it was 30 slayers against me but I had to act fast!

I pointed the stream to a slayer, it hit, the stream was so strong that it went through him, unsurprisingly the slayer fell dead. I started moving the stream toward the rest and took them down until I reached the leader, he quickly grabbed a ballistic shield from the ground and blocked the water, pushing him back a little. I stopped firing and the leader gave the order to retreat "We got what we wanted, let's move out!" The remaining slayers quickly started retreating, as soon as the last one was out, rockets started hitting the support beams. I looked around and it looked like everyone was out, good thing too because the catacombs was falling apart!

I was about to head in the portal until I saw the dragoness crawling as fast as she could to the portal since it looked like her hind legs were wounded, I couldn't just leave her to die so I picked her up and put her on my back "Hold on tight!" I told her. I sprinted toward the portal, I looked toward the door and saw that it was shut, I dodged falling pieces from the ceiling with ease, after what felt like forever I finally reached the portal. When I got through I saw full grown dragons crying, some male and some female, adolescent and hatchlings crying for their parents. It broke my heart to see them like that. Dragons to me were like my second family, even if some didn't treat me like it. I put the dragoness down carefully and walked off the platform we were on, not caring about my surroundings, I went to the nearest dark alleyway and turned back to my human form. "They've caused too much pain to live..." I started to growl "They've taken too many innocent lives... the dragons didn't ask for this... what have they done to deserve this!...I'll kill them... every single slayer..." my growl soon turned to a roar "I'LL KILL THEM ALL! EVERY SLAYER WILL DIE BY MY HAND! FOR EVERY INNOCENT LIFE THEY'VE TAKEN! FOR EVERY DRAGON LEFT CHILDLESS AND LEFT WITHOUT A PARENT! I WILL HAVE REVENGE!" after that I punched a wall with all my strength, I left a small crater in it.


	8. Chapter 8

It took me around 30 minutes to calm down, as I walked out of the alley I saw what looked like some ancient/ modern city crumbling buildings, flat roofed houses, what was the most impressive was that I saw a tall 300 foot wall surrounding the area, I marveled until I heard voices around 100 feet behind me. I saw a group of dragons in front of a beautiful mansion, with white marble columns at the front, stone statues of knights at the front of each side, it looked around a three story building, it also was colored a dark brown, _you don't see those everyday_ I thought. As I walked closer I saw royal purple surrounding dark oak doors with golden knobs and knockers, 80 feet in height, 140 feet in length, as I walked to the side it looked like 60 feet in width.

I got close to where the crowd was and as I got an even closer look I saw the house was made of bricks, it was impressive now that most houses were made of wood or fake wood that can easily break if you bend it or accidentally slip on something and hit your knee on it. I heard a voice keep saying "No one except the blood of the portal master may enter!", I got cold glares from the dragons "W-what's going on?" I asked, only to receive even colder glares, a few even tried to smack me with their tail.

"We're trying to explore the area but we can't get into here, the statues say that only the blood of some sort of portal master can enter, whatever that is" I heard someone answer. The dragoness that I carried came out of the crowd "Statues?" I asked, a bit confused. How could statues talk? Aren't they supposed to stand still and you know, not talk? "It sounds crazy, I know. Believe me it scared most of us too" she said, I walked toward the doors while dragons stepped aside while calling me things like "scum of the earth", "scumbag" and "piece of crap". I ignored them and kept walking, when I stopped to the doors, one of the statues looked at me and shot a green laser "Scan complete. Name: Enoch Hernández, bloodline: Royal, Social rank: Ruler, designation: Portal master. Welcome back, it has been a century since a new portal master has come." Confirmed the statue, as they both took a knee "You may enter, enjoy the living area of your ancestors".

I was confused, I didn't know a thing about what they were talking about, what in the world is a portal master? As soon as they said that, the doors started to open slowly, it took about 10 seconds for the doors to fully open. I knew I could have opened the doors but I thought that would ruin the moment. I took a step back, reluctant to go in "It is okay. You may enter" comforted the statue. I took a deep breath and stepped into the mansion. I was greeted with surprisingly fresh air, paintings and pictures of who I could only assume were my ancestors. The floor was smooth marble, the interior of the mansion was colored white, I saw a set of couches and other cushioned furniture, for being at least a century old it was still somewhat comfortable. A staircase on both sides of the couches leading to the second floor and at the end of the second floor platform there was the third staircase leading to the third floor, all being supported by marble pillars. I took a look at the kitchen and it was very outdated, it looked like the oven used coal to cook, no microwave, no fridge or any necessary appliances to warm up or store your food, just a sink, an oven, a wooden cupboard, wooden drawers, wooden table and seats and that's just about it, they were all falling apart as well.

As I explored around the place I saw that almost everything was outdated except one thing that looked fairly modern, it looked like several computer monitors with still images, I then realized that they were camera screens, it had very bad resolution however. You could barely see anything that wasn't blurry, the camera system definitely needed to be upgraded. What's the point of having a camera system if you can't see anything? Besides the camera system was a control panel that had quite a few buttons and levers, one that said "Activate wall" whatever that meant, there was another button that had a part of the words on it, all I could read was "ng room", again, whatever that meant.

As I came out of the mansion I saw that the group of dragons weren't their anymore, I assumed they got mad that a human could enter but no dragon could enter. In their defense, I would be too I mean, not being let into a luxurious place but some other person can just because of their bloodline? I'd get pretty mad. As I went in the mansion again, I started to examine the latest picture which I assumed was the "portal master" before me

"His name was Infernicus, he was a tyrant, a warmonger, a sad excuse for a ruler if you asked me" I quickly turned around and saw Cyrill, "He kept declaring war after war over silly things like one country having more food than one or someone beat him at a game of cards or something. He sent innocent people to their death, men, women and children as well. He only cared about himself and never about his townspeople, while he lived in riches, the rest lived in poverty, living in rags that were covered in who knows what, they barely got a bath and very malnourished. Soon, they all got sick and started to die off, a few lucky ones managed to escape, those who didn't manage to, were put to death, sometimes publicly. Before Infernicus knew it, he was all alone with a city full of death and stink, but not before his wife left him. He went to the nearest cliff next to the ocean and leaped to his death. His wife on the other hand managed to find a way to create a portal to a new world, one where she could start a new life of her own and for the child that was well on its way to be born on the earth." He finished.

"Cyrill... how do you know all this?" I asked in amazement,

"...Because I knew him" He said with a sigh "We all knew him, Volteer, Terrador, Aquarius and Ignitus. We begged him to change his ways but he was too stubborn to listen"

"You were still alive a century ago?"

"Of course, us dragons can live over a thousand years, we're almost immortal" He said with a chuckle

 _The more you know_ I thought "Hold on, how did you even know my name in the first place?" I asked

"Well Aquarius was a guardian who didn't like living in the temple and moved to live in Warfang, of course he still had his duties, so every few weeks he would leave Warfang and spend a day or two at the temple. He told us all about his experiences with you, training you, raising you, he really treated you like a son. He never stopped talking about you, we actually got a bit annoyed after a bit. At first, it came to us as a shock when he told us he was raising you, but we trusted him and look at you, a born leader".

I sighed and sat on the ground "I'm no leader, I bet if I issued one command everyone will hate me and try to kill me, not that everyone doesn't hate me for being a human" I said with a sad tone. Cyrill looked at me with a sympathetic look and lightly nudged me in the arm with his head "Come on, don't let them get to you, you'll do great. They just need to get used to you, shouldn't take long since dragons are generally kind creatures" he comforted. I smiled a little and stood up "Well, what should I do?" I asked

"Address your people" I heard a deep voice coming from the doors, it was Terrador. A large green and brown dragon with a spiked mace-like tail "Do what you think is best... as long as you don't repeat what your ancestor did" he added. It was weird that they knew pretty much everything about me, but I only knew their names and a few things about them, a yellow dragon with a few dark colored scales came in "If you're wondering why we managed to come in, the statues recognized us, it's amazing, marvelous, stupendous" That was Volteer, a lighting dragon with a love for synonyms, he's also a blabber mouth as you noticed "Well, I suppose the first order of business is to get this place cleaned up and hospitable, after that, maybe a possible counter attack against the slayers and reclaim Warfang, show the slayers we can defend ourselves" I proposed.

"That does seem like a good idea" started Terrador "But let's not rush into the dragon slayer business yet. The dragons just went through a very stressing and traumatizing ordeal, I think that's the last thing they want to hear, I am with you on attacking the slayers however, just not yet".

I nodded "Very well, are there any landmarks in the area?", they had to think about it for a minute or two since it was a long time since they had been here "There is a coliseum, a few miles east of here. Don't ask why he had one, Infernicus had horrible, dreadful, terr-" he couldn't finish his sentence "We get it Volteer, he had a bunch of bad stuff happen there, but it's not like we'll see any evidence of any of those things in it... right?" I asked doubtfully

"I'm not sure, it's possible though" commented Cyrill

"I guess that's where we're headed then... unless there's another place you remember" The dragons stood silent "I'll take that as a no" I assumed "Then we shall head to the coliseum then" I concluded "You three will round up the dragons and have them go to the coliseum, I should be there by the time you arrive" I ordered. Terrador nodded and left, so did the others, as soon as they left I turned to my dragon form and headed for the circular building. As I neared the coliseum I noticed that it was colossal, it could seat up to one million people, and the arena was giant, it was about the size of 12 football fields, this Infernicus must have spent quite a bit of resources and money to build this, resources and money that he could have used on his people.

When I landed in the arena I decided to look around, didn't look like it had anything like skeletons or that would set off a bad feeling, it looked good to have the small meeting, I turned to human form and decided to sit on the dirt. As the dragons reluctantly flew in, lead by the guardians, they saw me and some other dragons (not surprisingly) glared at me. I sat up and sighed "Everyone, I know most of you are mad at me and still blame me for leading the slayers to Warfang. Even though I keep telling you that it's not my fault that the slayers sacked the beautiful city of Warfang. That's not why I called you here though. As quite a few of you know, I apparently have some sort of royal bloodline that makes me the ruler of this place. I am not asking you to become permanent citizens of this city, but I am asking that you give me a chance and let me be your leader, who knows, you may start to think differently about humans and see them as a friend, not an enemy. Let me be your leader and hopefully make this land a better place, hospitable for both humans and dragons" I finished and waited for a response, they were silent

"F(*^ you! And F)*^) that!" I heard someone shout

"Woah! What's with the swearing? I don't appreciate that!" I replied

"Well do you honestly think that I and the rest of dragon kind would trust you after your kind are the ones that took away our home and families!? I think some of us would rather die than having you as our leader, even if it is temporary. Humans are traitors, and they always will be" the dragon stated. It saddened me to hear that

"I have taken an oath that I will never hurt a single dragon, but protect them, you can trust me" I argued

"Even more lies!" He countered

"Enough!" I heard Terrador shout "Humans may not have treated us right in the past, but don't you think we should lay down the hatchet with this one. He's been raised by one of us for crying out loud! I'm sure you all knew Aquarius, he was the dragon that raised him. Didn't you ever see a smaller blue dragon always next to Aquarius? Well guess what, this human was that dragon and if you ever saw him you would never see any evil characteristic in him, just a dragon trying to survive, in a city where he would be executed if the rest of the population knew. He and Aquarius, for housing a human. Enoch has fought for us, yet you have wrongly accused him of being one of those ruffians whose sole purpose is to wipe us out. He has had many opportunities to kill a dragon, but he never took it because a kind spirit was and still is in him. All of you should give this human a chance, and you Brutus!" He looked at the brown dragon who swore at me "You need to control your temper... my student!" Terrador then looked at me and stood beside me

"I, Terrador, Earth guardian, vote him as our leader" He elected Cyrill then came and stood beside me

"I, Cyrill, Ice guardian vote him as well as our leader", it was Volteer's turn

"I, Volteer, electricity guardian, vote him as our leader". It was settled, once the guardians were all in agreement, it was set on stone and could not be altered.

"Our first order of business then, is to clean this city and make it hospitable once more" I ordered

Author's note: Assuming you read the whole chapter up to this point you will see that Brutus yells out random symbols. The thing about me is that I don't curse, the reason being is that when I was very little I was told that cursing is rude and should never use those words (that and I'm a Christian), I've barely cursed and I'm almost 16. So there you go, when you read that part again, just imagine the F-bomb being put there


	9. Chapter 9

For the rest of the day the dragons scattered around the ruined city looking for supplies and materials to build their dens. Some found large holes and made their dens in them, some made tower-like houses, like the houses in Warfang. They were very tall and circular, around 50 to 100 feet, most warfang houses had blue paint around it to signify the levels of the house, with a dome shaped roof. Others occupied the homes of the previous owners and patched the holes with adobe blocks, some of the dragon actually broke down some of the walls and expanded it to add extra rooms and more space, as dragons do need quite a bit of space to move around depending on their size. As for the hatchlings that were left without a parent, they were either taken care of by their relatives that survived or a dragon who was nice enough to take them in.

I offered to help them build but all of them turned me down, all but one, it was that certain dragoness. "I could always use a helping hand" she said with a smile, I looked at how she was building, it appeared she was making one of the ones from Warfang so I grabbed an adobe block and started copying what she did. Throughout everything, I never knew what she was called, "You know, I don't think I ever got your name" I asked.

She chuckled "Oh, how rude of me. It's Sarah, Sarah Peterson, I don't think I got your name either human"

"It's Enoch, didn't you hear Terrador mention my name?" I questioned

"To be honest, no. I was thinking how rude that Brutus guy was, he has some anger issues to settle" I nodded and kept working. Then I thought of another thing, Sarah was injured last time I checked

"By the way, how's your leg, I'm assuming you were shot there because you were crawling in the catacombs" I asked, she had a puzzled look on her face but like a lightbulb went off in her head, she remembered.

"Oh that?" Sarah looked at her legs which were as good as new "I was shot in the legs, but after you got me through the portal, Terrador saw me and handed me a red crystal. I shattered it and it healed me, the crystal shards went in my wounds and started patching me up" She explained

"I know how crystals work" I stated, somewhat annoyed "Red crystals, once broken, heal your wounds if you have any and are a one time use item. The shards go inside the wound, and increase the time platelets would form a scab and new scales would grow back by %90. Green crystals, once broken, the shards go into your body and give you a burst of energy. The rare blue crystal gives you knowledge in a certain topic, topics of knowledge may vary, from your abc's to the most complicated math problem to military strategies thought to the last detail. There maybe even more crystals but those, excluding the blue one, are the most common and can only be used by those who have dragon DNA." I explained. Sarah had an amazed look on her face "Wow... you know your stuff. For a human" She chuckled

"Hey, I may be human but I was raised by a guardian, one of the most intelligible and strongest dragons alive" I rebutted

"A dragon that was killed by humans" She reminded. I shot her a cold glare, she realized what she just said "Oh, my- I am so sorry. I didn't mean it!" She exclaimed

"Just, don't say it again and next time think before you act..." I growled. We kept working and making small chat, and eventually finished the first floor, the walls were sturdy and the roof surprisingly didn't collapse since it was supported by only one beam in the middle "Welp" I yawned "I think it's time for me to hit the hay, I'm pretty sure it's at least close to midnight judging by the moon", Sarah looked at the sky and agreed

"Alright, see you tomorrow..." She said drowsily and went inside the rectangle shaped hole that served as a door. I walked back slowly to the mansion and tried my hardest not to fall flat on my face and pay the rest of the trip to dreamland. When I got the abnormally large house, I opened the doors and headed for the bedroom, I noticed that the house was lit up, there were working lights, dim, like the lights you see at a fancy restaurant, but still working. I opened the bedroom door and crawled onto bed, not even caring about the age of the bed or how it looked, as soon as my head hit the bed, I was out like a light.

My delightful dream of a buffet full of fried chicken, pizza; macaroni and cheese was interrupted by crowing (rooster crowing to be exact). I opened my eyes at what felt like 6 AM, the sun was barely shining. Last time I checked we didn't have any farm animals near us (I could have been wrong though because I didn't check the whole area). I stood up and walked down the creaky wooden stairs that managed to hold my weight; opened the doors and began the long 30 minute walk to the wall since I thought I kept hearing crowing from the opposite side of the wall. As soon as I reached the giant structure I just remembered I could have flew there in my dragon form. I sighed and flew to the top, as I reached the top and got back in my human form I saw a group of 5 humans with a greater amount of farm animals. I cautiously walked toward the edge and in my sleepy state I almost fell forward but quickly caught myself and fell back. My eyes were about to close again until I heard "Hey! Leave that bottle of alcohol alone and help us out!". I got up again and saw them _Do they seriously think I'm drunk!_ I thought without thinking I asked "How can I help?"

"There should be some sort of lever on the wall, that should open the gate that's blocking our way"

I had second thoughts, _What if they're slayers! The dragons have already gone through an ordeal, I can't let it happen again!_ Are one of the thoughts that went through my mind. As I looked around I found the lever and hesitantly rested my hands on it .

"What's taking him so long?" I heard someone ask

"Maybe we imagined it?" I heard a feminine voice say

"No, I don't think so sis. We all saw him. Didn't we?" another Masculine voice asked

 _I'm too nice_ I told myself as I lifted the lever, I felt a vibration under my feet and heard what I assumed was a gate opening. I quickly turned to my dragon form and flew down,turning back human and saw the group among the animals. "Who goes there and state your business" I demanded. The group of 3 males and 2 females stopped in their tracks; A young man around 18 years old came out "My name is John, I come with my siblings: Jake, Stix, Jane and Maria. We have come here to rule the land here." He said.

"Tough luck, this place already has a ruler"

"Really? Who?" he asked

"Me, I'm the portal master"

"Okay, seriously who's the ruler?" He said after chuckling a little

"That would be me" I repeated trying to keep my cool

"You can't be serious" he insinuated

"I am" I stated "I just came into power yesterday after a few... complications"

"Alright then..." He said doubtfully "May we enter the premises of the walls" he asked

I looked at them "You may... after answering these questions. The first question: From where do you come from?"

John sighed "We come from a village miles away, we left after our grandfather died to seek the new land that he told us about in his stories."

"I see... is this the land you seek and has your grandfather lived here?"

"Yes and Yes, he and his father have escaped from this land when a wretched ruler was the portal master. From what he told us, before him; This land was prosperous and gave plenty to its citizens, we came here to make this land prosperous once more. That's why we brought a portion of our livestock you see"

I nodded "Does your family have any ties to war?

"It does not, however we have been trained to protect ourselves with firearms and various bladed weapons"

"You may pass, I warn you though. The ones here aren't too friendly with humans as they have had some bad experiences with them earlier" I cautioned

"But you're human." He reminded

"Yes, but I'm an exception"

"Okay but why do the citizens hate humans, aren't they humans themselves?"

"No, the complete opposite actually, they're dragons."

"Dragons?" He asked

"Yes, I'll explain later"

"Can we see one?" asked a girl about my age with short hair

"Didn't you hear him Jane? Dragons don't like humans" said a bald headed young man, around the same age as John.

All the guys seemed to be around 18. The girls seemed to be around 15.

"Actually" I started "There is one that is a bit friendlier to humans, I can take you to her if you want"

"Sounds good" Said Jane "What about you guys?" she asked

"I'm fine with it" a girl with long hair and glasses agreed

The rest agreed and we headed toward Sarah's house. "What are your names again? I tend to forget names in a short amount of time"

"My name is Stix" said the bald headed one

"I'm Jake" Said a guy with a military like haircut

"I'm Maria" Said the girl with glasses

"And I'm Jane, pleased to meet you" said the girl with short hair.

I found Jane quite attractive actually, her eyes were the color of honey, her dark hair flowing in the small morning breeze just made her look even more stunning.

"My name, as I said earlier is John. What's yours?" he said

"Well, my name is Enoch." I said

"Enoch, Enoch, Enoch..." I heard Stix murmur "Is that a Biblical name?"

"It is actually, it means: Walking with God" I answered with a slight smile on my face.

As we got to the adobe house I knocked on the wall next to the "door". I heard a yawn and saw Sarah come out of her room "Good morning Enoch... Oh, uh who are they?"

"These are John, Maria, Jake, Stix and Jane. They're going to stay here and they wanted to see a dragon. Since you're one of the few who were kind to me, I decided I could introduce them to you." I explained

"Oh... Come in then" she invited. We went inside while the livestock were standing beside the house.

"So, can you tell us why the dragons don't like humans? Last time I checked dragons welcomed humans with open arms, err, well you know what I mean" asked Jane.

"According to the scrolls, dragons did welcome humans. We lived in harmony with each other, until one day a group of humans mercilessly killed a poor hatchling. Us dragons took that as an offense and saw humans as creatures who hate things that are different from them but have the same rights. As more killings took place, we got tired of it and escaped into a realm where we dragons could be safe. Fast forward a few hundred years later and our city of Warfang was built, fast forward a bit more and we heard of entire dragon tribes being massacred we started to live in a time of fear. Around 80 years later Warfang was attacked and it fell, humans flooded in the city and pretty much everyone was killed. As far as I know, I, Enoch and around 150 dragons survived and escaped into this new realm, that was yesterday."

They were confused "But if Enoch's human wouldn't that make him one of the people who slaughtered your kind?" asked John

"No, oddly enough he was helping us fight against the attackers" she answered "However, I'm also confused about that" she continued.

"Maybe it'll help a bit more if I tell how I came to the dragon realm and so on"

As I explained, they all paid close attention asking questions when they could.

"So let me get this straight, you were originally human but when you became a dragon you were pretty much banished by mankind and you lived peacefully with dragons until yesterday?" Asked John

"Pretty much" I answered.

"Don't you think you should launch a counter-attack on the ones who took your freedom away? The slayers I mean"

Sarah's eyes widened and her legs started shaking a bit

"I will but not right now, some of the dragons are still shaken from the massacre and don't even want to hear the word 'slayer'"

Sarah made a small sigh of relief, "But I will see if I can find some sort of training range, so when I do plan to launch a counter attack I'll know where I can set up the training grounds for the army. Your grandfather and your great grandfather lived here didn't they? Did they mention of anything military wise, if they had something like I just described?"

John thought for a bit. "It's been a long time since he died but I did mention our dad say something about a training ground for soldiers, I can't remember where exactly though"

"I guess I'll have to find it then"

"You mean we'll have to find it. We're joining you on your goal, drive the slayers from Warfang and help you reclaim it."

"But I thought you wanted to rule this place" I queried

"Well it would be rude to just take your domain and kingdom, besides we can't rule it when there's five people. One would want something, the other would want something else and so on, it'd be chaos."

"Well we can't do find it today, what about your animals? They can't just walk all over the place, they might get lost or a dragon might mistake them as dinner and you'll be left with one less cow or something"

"Then we'll find a building to put them in temporarily"

We thanked Sarah for her hospitality and left with the animals. I turned into my dragon form and scouted the area on air to find a large building to store them in. What I saw was interesting, that little city was just a small chunk. There was an ocean of green grass surrounding it behind the enclosed by the walls; looks like Infernicus was too lazy to expand his city. After a few minutes I spotted a large green barn that seemed to be big enough for the caravan of animals they brought. I landed by them, unfortunately startled a few of the horses and the group struggled to calm them. After that, I spoke "I saw a green barn a couple of miles east from here, follow me" I told them. After what felt like thirty minutes of walking we saw the barn, as we neared it; the smell of rotten wood penetrated my nostrils, it seemed to affect them too since I saw Jane and Stix cover their noses, the rest covered their noses with their shirts. "I'm sorry but this is the only thing I can find right now" I explained

"It's fine, I just hope the animals can stand the smell for a few days" said Jane as they started herding the animals into the building. As soon as we finished I had to find the training area, as soon as I was about to take flight Sarah landed next to us. "If you're looking for the military sector, I found it. It's miles west from here and it would take around an hour and a half on foot, we can cut down most of that time and get there in 5 minutes if we fly." There was one problem: while I and Sarah could fly; the siblings could not "What about them?" I asked, referring to the five.

"They can just ride on our backs, it shouldn't be a big deal" she answered.

We had them climb on our backs, I felt a little uncomfortable having humans on my back, I wasn't used to it, I looked at Sarah and judging by her facial expression: neither was she. As we started to take off we felt the weight of them and failed the first time, I carried Jane, John and Stix; Sarah took Maria and Jake. We took off once again and managed to stay in the air. Sarah was right; the trip didn't take very long, as we neared what looked like a giant rectangle filled with military contraptions. We landed and marveled at what looked like an old school military base.

"This must be the military sector" I inferred, Sarah nodded. The whole area was surrounded by fence, albeit they were rusty and very weak considering the time that passed, at the top of the fence was barbed wire, also rusty. We didn't feel like climbing the rusty fence or felt like flying over since carrying all that weight tired us out a bit. We settled on finding an entrance. While we didn't find a traditional gate, we found a rectangular hole cut out with what I assumed was wire cutters and went in, I and Sarah; careful not to cut our wings with the fence (even if our wings were covered in scales as hard as titanium).

I saw loads of vehicles, from old school motorcycles to tanks, they looked like they were all from the World War 1 era. The tanks consisted of what looked like Ft-17 Renault tanks up to mark 5 tanks, the thing was that it looked like all the tanks except two Renault tanks looked to be operational as the rest were reduced to scrap metal. The Renault is a two seater small tank that goes roughly 4 miles per hour so they aren't very fast nor suitable in a modern combat situation. Stix and Jane climbed into each of the tanks and started driving them, "They seem to be in good condition, they drive somewhat well, considering their age" assured Stix

"How do you know how to drive them?" I asked

"Our great grandfather stole manuals for tank driving and we used to read them when we were bored. Who knew we would actually use them, especially on an old on like this!" answered Stix

As the rest tested out the other vehicles like the jeeps and motorcycles and I transformed into my human form and went to see if there was an armory around, there had to be! No matter how much I looked; no armory was in sight, I saw barracks, I saw medical tents which was odd for a base, but no armory. I walked and walked through the dirt for what felt like hours until I tripped over a lever " _What is it with this place and levers!"_ I thought as I brushed dirt off my shirt and face. "I guess it can't hurt..." I grumbled as I pulled the wooden rotting lever, as I finished pulling up the lever, I felt some vibrations in the ground and saw the earth removing below me. I Moved from where I was and when it stopped moving I saw that it revealed a corridor of stairs, and the "earth" was just regular stone, which is a part of the earth but not the type I meant.

I started to walk down the creaky wooden stairs and when I reached the fourth step out of the fifteen downward angled stairs, it broke under my weight (And I'm 140 pounds! Which isn't that heavy, considering my age which was at that point 15). I landed on my back and had the wind knocked out of me, as I got up and regained my breath I saw that I was surrounded by bolt action rifles, light machine guns, front loading rifles, ammo crates, a few mortars, crates of mortar shells. As I explored further in the armory I found dark green clothing. "Enoch!" I heard Jane say "Are you okay, we heard a faint sound from here!"

"I'm okay just be-" I heard a series of thumps, broken wood and groans "Careful..."


	10. Chapter 10

"Amazing" marveled Jake "With this weaponry we can drive the slayers out of Warfang. We won't even break a sweat!" he was being cocky, that wasn't good. Usually in a battle situation, the cocky ones are the first to die "Don't be so sure of yourself. Look at the weapons we have, front loaders aren't the the fastest to reload if you haven't noticed." I reminded.

"Oh we know, but even the slowest weapons can be effective with a good strategy" informed John.

I nodded "I hope you don't mind me asking but, why do you even care about the dragons? They're not your species and you haven't even lived with one. As far as I know anyway"

"Dragons used to be free and loving creatures that ruled the skies. I want dragons to have that freedom once more, no one deserves to be treated like how they are now. Dragons, or humans" John explained.

I never thought someone else would have as much passion about dragons as much as I have "Do you all think this?" I asked; the rest nodded. "So, how are we going to do this? We have weapons but we need training on how to use them, I don't think the dragons know even how load to bolt action rifle, no offense Sarah" I asked as I grabbed a 1903 Springfield from the gun rack

"I know a thing or two about bolt actions" Stix raised a hand "Like John said, we were trained to use firearms. In fact, going down to the range was one of my favorite hobbies"

"I could possibly teach about front loading rifles; muskets and other types of rifles were my favorite type, especially with percussion cap firing systems like these" Maria pointed at the gun rack full of Springfields and Lorenz rifles.

"What about the machine guns and mortars?" I asked, we can all fire and reload a rifle, but MG's and mortars are slightly different, especially mortars. A mortar operates much different than a simple rifle, for example; it has a bit more complicated way of aiming, you need to find out how much powder is in the shell or else you can get yourself blown up when firing and other things.

"I don't know about the mortars but I've shot a few machine guns. They were pretty similar, if not the exact same model of these beasts" answered Jane, referring to the MG's. I took a last scan of the weapons, we had: Browning Automatic Rifles; which is also known as a BAR, Springfield model 1863's, Lorenz rifles, 1903 Springfield bolt action rifles without any high powered sights; much less any other sights (well, excluding iron ones) and two very slow Renault tanks. The slayers had (as far as I knew):Rockets, sniper rifles with most possibly high powered scopes, modern assault rifles that can range from semi to fully automatic. Diagnosis: we would need a miracle to win the battle. I sighed "Alright, if it's the only type we have; I'll go through with it, but first we need to find out how we'll hold the ammunition for our firearms. Search the armory and try to find ammo pouches of some sort."

We split up, I looked at the dark green clothing I found earlier and recognized it to be World War one infantry uniforms, _if there are uniforms here, there should be pattern webbing_ I thought. Lo and behold, there it was, woven cotton pattern webbing being displayed on a wall. There wasn't any equipment on it like haversacks and ammunition pouches, that would prove to heavy and the rusty hooks might have broken off. There were crates under them, when I opened them I saw all what I needed and then some: dozens of ammo pouches, haversacks, attachments for entrenching tool handles and covers, the whole set for what you would see an infantry unit from World War one would wear. I didn't have a manual so I had to use my head to put together the webbing. I flickered on the lights and got to work, most of the items were common sense, the large pack went on the back, I tied the haversack onto the right shoulder strap, put the ammo pouches on each side, but the entrenching tool handle accessory and cover was a bit tricky.

I eventually got the body armor assembled and headed toward where I fell, when I got there I saw Maria that looked like she had bandoleer gear on, which is what it sounds like. A cotton or leather material made into a bandoleer to fit around the body with ammo pouches fitted around the bandoleer, there would also be a belt around to fit around the waist to carry more equipment, including things like the haversack. "Oh you found something too?" I asked

"Yup" she answered "Yours looks better though" she opined

I grinned and noticed that we were the only ones in the room, it was a bit awkward and I was never much for starting a conversation so we just stood in silence. After maybe a minute that felt like an hour, the rest came in with clothing that they weren't wearing before, they were wearing a dark green uniform, with brown boots and a steel helmet. "I think it's safe to assume you found the actual uniforms" I noticed

"Yeah, they're quite comfortable actually" said Jake.

We got out of the armory and started talking tactics and strategies, Sarah giving information on the city explaining where would be a good place for sniping and other things. "Then it's settled we'll launch a counter-attack. We need to prepare though, we'll also need the troops. The thing is; I don't think the dragons will want to fight alongside humans due to their past experiences

"You should at least try" pleaded Jake "You never know"

We talked a bit more and it was getting dark, I looked at the

sky and it looked like it was 11 pm, judging by the moon's position and we called it a night. "You know..." I started "The dragons may not let you sleep in their dens and houses, but there are a few guest rooms in my mansion where you could sleep in" I proposed, Jane's eyes lit up and John agreed. We made our way to the mansion, making a bit of small talk. When we got to the mansion I escorted each of them to their rooms, until Jane was left. I didn't know if there were any rooms left

"It's okay, I can always sleep in Maria's room,she doesn't care" Jane offered

"No, I think you should have your own room, a girl like yourself needs some privacy."

"I appreciate the offer but-"

"No buts, I insist"

As we went through the hallway, I spotted a door a few feet from across my room. I opened it and it was another guest room (how convenient). I escorted her to her room and she looked at me one more time with those sweet, gentle eyes and closed the door. I never thought I would find love, but here she was. I went to my room and closed the doors (which included my balcony), as was my custom ever since I was little. Every time I went to sleep, I made sure every door was closed, didn't matter the closet door and especially the entrance door. I got under my sheets with my clothing still on and drifted off to dreamland.

Once again I was woken up early in the morning by crowing, I lethargically and desperately tried to hit the snooze button on my alarm clock on the nightstand that wasn't there. Then I realized that a certain group of siblings brought their whole livestock with them, I tried my best to go to sleep but I also heard...thumping? I opened my balcony doors and saw someone hammering what looked like wood into the ground a few yards from my house, I was about to go to see who he or she was and what exactly the person was doing but... My stomach was making the rumblies, that only breakfast could suffice. I went downstairs and to the kitchen where I found... nothing. Big shocker, I mean it's not like I found this place a few days ago... Oh wait, I did! I sighed and decided to check who was the person making all the noise. It was a cold and windy six AM, as I got closer I saw John hammering down wooden fence posts into the ground, I looked at it a bit more and realized he was making a boundary for a fence, presumably for their animals. "Need some help?" I asked, John noticed me and gladly accepted, I grabbed an extra hammer he had lying around and got to work. "Hey, where'd the rest go? Shouldn't they be helping you?" I inquired

He chuckled "Those good for nothin' laggards are fast asleep in their bed sheets" he laughed "They probably slept in since they are in a different area and thought they could wake up later. Five AM is our usual wake up time after all" he yawned

"Oh, I know the feeling. I hate waking up early, it always puts me in a slightly bad mood, but then your rooster decided to wake me up..."

"Well he is our alarm clock if we wake up late, I personally don't mind waking up at 3 AM as long as I work out or have work to do, things like milking the cows or collecting eggs from the hens" he informed. I could tell, he wasn't ripped but it looked like everything below his head was 99 percent pure muscle. We talked about their life before all this, what they did as little kids, what they did for fun. According to John, they actually lived a pretty good life, they had electricity, they had video games, everything that a kid needed to feel happy. He even said that there were villages all around the land, human villages, I think I could recruit a few of them or have them move into the city, that is; after we take back Warfang. We finished building and surrounding the fence with chicken wire around 8 AM, time went pretty fast. When I took a break to wipe the sweat off my forehead I noticed that the siblings running down to where we were "You're late!" informed John as the rest slowed "Too late. Enoch and I just finished the fence 1 minute ago" they stopped and looked a tad bit annoyed, everyone had crazy hair, especially Jane's and Maria's since presumably they didn't have time to brush theirs. "Sorry we're late..." apologize Stix groggily. We managed to herd the chickens from the barn into the pen "What about the chicken house? We didn't build that." I pointed out

"We got that covered" said John "It's outside the wall, near the gate and I thought you could help us by carrying it. You think you can do that?" he asked

"I'll do my best" I answered. I turned into my magnificent dragon form and flew to where John described the chicken house was and there it was, colored in bright red and looking like a miniature barn. I grabbed it as gently as I could with my paws and lifted. It was a bit heavy but nothing I couldn't manage; soon enough I placed the chicken house in the far edge of the chicken pen. Soon after, we headed toward the military sector where Jane showed how to operate machine guns, Maria showed how to use and load a front loading rifle and last but not least, Stix showed how to use and load a bolt action. They all told the history and the internals down to the last detail; I'm surprised they didn't make us take out a sheet of paper and do a pop quiz, however I could have convinced Jane to give me a couple of free bonus points.

It was time to fire a rifle, we chose the front loaders; I chose Springfield model 1863 and the rest I didn't see. We went to an outdoor range and set up a few stacked rusty cans as targets on rusty barrels. We poured the black powder down the barrel, followed by the minié ball. To those who don't know about muzzle loaders, you should know that there is a rod in the rifle/musket called the ram rod which you ram the bullet down the barrel which is what we did. We half cocked the primer on the rifle, added the percussion cap to the stub next to the primer, fully cocked the primer and most all but me fired. I licked my finger and held it in the air, the wind was blowing slightly to the right. I put my finger down and adjusted the sights and fired, direct hit... at the cost of losing half of my hearing! We needed something, two words: Ear. Protection. I immediately dropped the rifle and plugged my ears and I swear I felt my ears bleeding. "Okay!" I started "By any chance, did anyone see any ear protection!?" the rest shook their heads in a "no". We reloaded and covered our ears as best we could with our two hands on the rifles and our shots were pretty bad afterwards. After seventy-five shots we decided to stop, we could hear nothing but ringing for the next five minutes "Next time we shoot... we shoot with ear protection" I said.

"Agreed" started John "We may go deaf if we keep firing without some sort of protection"

I went back to the armory and searched for anything we could use, after a few minutes I found small clear plastic containers laying scattered around the floor. I opened them and it looked like ear plugs made of hardened beeswax, I remembered that in the story of Homer's _The Odyssey_ , Odysseus had his crew to put beeswax in their ears to muffle out the death-song of the malicious sirens, which worked. I brought the containers containing the ear plugs and handed them out to everyone, Maria opened hers and sniffed the earplugs "Beeswax?" she wondered.

"Just use it, it's what we have right now and it'll keep us from going deaf"

We fired the bolt actions and the LMG's, I always did my routine of licking my finger and adjusting the firearm to the wind, bullet drop and the distance the targets were. I was a pretty good shot, with bolt actions that is. When I used a Lewis gun I missed most of my shots and just grazed the sides of the cans, I was getting frustrated and about to throw the firearm to the ground until Jane gave me advice to use short controlled bursts, as I was going full auto. I got better using that technique, not all the shots were dead center but some actually started to hit the can. At the end, our ears only rang slightly. We soon put our earplugs back into our containers and left, putting the firearms where they were previously and walked home. It looked like some of the dragons heard us firing because we saw a group of dragons heading toward us, including that Brutus fellow who unsurprisingly glared at us with true hatred, especially with more humans around me and stopped in front of us. _Here we go again..._ I thought.

"Why did you let these four inside!" Brutus asked in a rude and angry manner

"These are just simple farmers who want to raise their livestock, live a regular life with dragons and want to co-exist with dragons in peace" I answered calmly

"Is that so?" he started "Then what about the booms we heard? Those sounded very similar to the ones that the other human's weapons made."

"The booms? Oh you mean cracks the bullets made when breaking the sound barrier and the explosion from the black and smokeless powder. They're also going to be a part of the group that takes back Warfang and I'm having them train for the day"

"What?" He asked

"All will be explained at a later time. Farewell for now." I said as we started to leave

"Wait! I still have questions!" Persisted Brutus, to which he got no answer.

When we got home I apologized for their rude behavior and we relaxed the best we could for a few hours. I went to the control panel and blew off the dust and saw an image that looked like a microphone, I pressed it. "Testing, testing, does this thing work? Whether this does or does not, in which case I made myself looking like a fool talking to a piece of metal with buttons, if it is however; I would like to have all dragons meet me in the coliseum, I need to make an announcement that must be in front of everyone, meet me there in ten minutes." I talked to the siblings "What I'm going to do is introduce you four to the dragons and tell the plan on how we'll build an army to reclaim Warfang and see who will fight with us, hopefully we get a large group of dragons to be trained as warriors. As the all the soldiers in Warfang were KIA trying to protect us from the slayers, which failed unfortunately." I explained

"Are you sure about that? It's a good plan but what's to keep the dragons from 'accidentally' burning us to a crisp?" asked Jane

"Hopefully the guardians will be there and accept you, that should offer enough protection, as the guardians are the backup rulers in case their leader is gone for whatever reason or is too young, they would also act as advisers." I comforted

"Oh that makes me feel so much better" Said Stix in a sarcastic tone

I walked out of the mansion with the rest following me, hesitant as they received glares from almost everyone else. Only five smiled, I couldn't tell if they were trying to be nice or genuinely meant their smiles, either way, a few smiled. As I got to the coliseum, I started to clear my throat and got nervous, you could see my legs shaking through my jeans. "I imagine are angry that not only by the fact that I disturbed you from whatever you were doing, but because new humans are here with us, now before you make roast human out of them and maybe me. I can explain, or rather they can explain"

Jane waved "He-hello" she cleared her throat "My name is Jane, this is my sister: Maria, my three brothers are John, Jane and Stix. Don't ask why he was named that way, I think our father wanted on of his sons to have a weird name. Anyways-" Jane couldn't finish her sentence because Jake cut her off

"I think I'll take it from here sis. Many years ago, our great grandfather escaped from this place it was under terrible rule by a man who didn't care about his citizens. He gave his citizens only the minimum necessities and do anything else for them. He started wars that could never be won and he took his anger on his own people, tortured and executed publicly. His people either died or barely escaped with their life. Our great grandfather, and our grandfather died, and we thought that enough time passed. We packed up our things, had our father give us a portion of his livestock and rule over the land, invite people from all over the skylands and live here. We stopped however when we saw Enoch looking over the walls and we decided we would become a part of his people" he explained

"So did you call all of us here just to introduce these humans?" Asked a green dragon in the crowd

"Not entirely, I also came to recruit. Now that you know their story, I feel that they're a bit more trustworthy to you. I am training them and myself to reclaim Warfang, whether you like it or not we need to counter attack. If not the slayers will find a way to get into this realm or other land, they've already taken Warfang, the city of the mighty creatures that are the dragons. That boosts their morale, they probably wiped out the remaining dragon tribes in the realm, which boosts their morale even more. When the slayers find us,we will not have a well trained army or militia and they will make dragons extinct, taking me and the rest of the humans hostage and/or executed. Making the sacrifice that those dragon soldiers did when the dragon slayers invaded Warfang in vain. We need to show that we are well trained, we can take a hit and keep going, that we will defend our lives even if it means we have to kill. We can't counter-attack with just five people, we'll get massacred, so I want you to join our force, to fight for freedom! What do you say? Will you join the Skyforce!?" I shouted. I know what you're thinking, but what would you have called it? I had to come up with the name in a pinch, I'm pretty sure I would have lost the attention of those who were motivated and less would fought for the cause. Everything went silent and I only heard whispers.

"I'll join!" I heard a familiar voice call out, it was Sarah, her light cyan scales glistened in the sunlight as she made her way through the crowd and stopped in the very front.

"So will I!" a green dragon stepped out.

A large crowd of around 99 dragons gathered at the right "Are there any more willing to join?" I asked

"I know I'm going to regret this..." sighed Brutus as he joined

"I heard that!" I snapped then chuckled "Now before you leave, let me just tell you my story so you know how I got here. I was, and still am 15 years of age..." I told my story in an effort to gain trust. After that I told them when training would start and dismissed them. As we started to head back, the guardians stopped us and looked at the siblings carefully then nodded "You four have enough light in you, you're free to go." informed Terrador, after we headed into the mansion we decided to call it a night.


	11. Chapter 11

"Hey!" I heard someone shout "Hey wake up!". I felt my body start to move; I started to open my eyes and only saw the wooden floor where I fell face flat on. "You awake yet?" I heard Maria ask, I looked to my right to where she was standing "Good morning sleepy head" she greeted.

"Maria- er, good morning- what are you doing in my room. Also how did you find me here?" I asked

"Please, did you really think your 'secret' bedroom would be held in secret from the rest of us? Some of us saw you lead Jane to a room next to yours, what did you think you were doing?"She inferred

"We could find no other vacant room, that was an actual bedroom. That was the only one left, ask Jane if you don't believe me. Anyways, why were you in my room in the first place?" I inquired

"Oh- uh, nothing. Just letting you know that breakfast is ready. By curiosity however, how do you like your eggs?" She asked

"You made me breakfast?" I queried

"Well uh- not just me, Jane and John helped out a little but I did more of the work! But if you don't want it I guess Jake could-"

I quickly turned into my dragon form and rushed through the door and accidentally right over the handrails of the second floor. Thankfully my scales cushioned my fall but it still hurt like a prick. I turned into my human form and got up like nothing happened "Good morning... What time is it?" I asked groggily

"It is six thirty in the morning" confirmed John "Come, eat" he invited with all but one at the table, where Maria was starting to sit. "Unless you want Jake to eat your food"

" I will too, don't test me." Jake clarified

My eyes widened and I rushed to the table, quickly grabbed my plate and sat down. I noticed the silverware and split the yolk of the sunny-side up egg. "How did you cook this? Barely any of the appliances work here, if you include the cabinets"

Stix chuckled "Do you really think we would leave home without the necessities? After hearing about this place, we saved up as much money as we could, when it was time to leave we spent as much money we could on appliances. We had more money than we thought actually. We bought an oven, a fridge-unfortunately we haven't hooked it up to the electricity yet- a microwave, a new sink, a few pots and pans and of course, utensils." he explained

"There was electricity where you came from?" I asked

"Of course! We're not savages. We also had cell service, gas for appliances, water for sinks and showers. However the only thing we've worked on is the gas." Stix admitted

We finished eating and we headed to the training grounds, which was strangely empty "Why isn't anyone here yet?" I wondered

"Now that I remember correctly, I don't think you told them where we were supposed to meet..." Commented Jane

I slapped my forehead "I'll be right back!" I turned to my dragon form and flew to the mansion, when I got there I got to the control panel I hit the mic button and spoke "Good morning everyone if you aren't awake or just woke up. I should have told you this earlier but I forgot to mention yesterday that training will be at the military sector, located west of here. To all participating dragons, just fly up and head west, you should see a sectioned off area surrounded by grass, with a fence, barbed wire, vehicles and buildings; and most possibly four humans waiting for your arrival. That's it, I hope to see you there! Over and out!" I left the mansion and headed toward the grounds and saw a few dragons flying toward the same directions I was going. I landed and waited for around ten minutes "Is everyone here?" I inquired and got no answer "Regardless, you're all here for one thing and for one thing only: To train. However, we need to get all your names if something comes up we can't just call you 'teal dragon' or 'crimson red dragon'. All of you will line up in a single line and you will introduce yourselves or just tell your name"

The dragons lined up in an orderly fashion and each of them shouted their names and sometimes said something about themselves like their hobbies. "Alright!" I shouted "Now for these questions you will raise your left wing to answer. Who's expertise here or would like to learn is in the medical field?" thirty dragons raised their wings "How about engineering?" twenty raised their wings "Combat?" The rest of the fifty dragons raised their wings. "Alright, I apologize in advance for the inconvenience but all dragons but those in combat can leave. Enjoy the rest of your day" everyone but the combat dragons took off. We entered the grounds and ushered the dragons in "We need to know your breath weapon so we know what it can and cannot be used for. Your strengths and weaknesses, are you stealthy or do you rely on brute force? That's what we're going to find out". We guided them into the firing range and set up empty ammo boxes in front of the dragons 50 feet away from them as targets. We put on our ear plugs "You are clear to fire" Stix announced. The dragons fired from fire to rock hard clumps of dirt, they fired multiple shots but I think it was time for streams. "Cease fire!" I commanded, the dragons stopped and looked at me "Now, all of those who are able to fire a steady stream, take aim and fire at my command". All the ammo boxes were wither tipped over or destroyed, after we flipped over and replaced the boxes and there was no one in the way I gave the command to fire. It looked like the ones who could create streams were water, fire, electricity, ice (however it wasn't very effective) and even magma. "Impressive... most impressive" I thought out loud. We went over short range shotgun like blasts and placed the targets closer to them, "Fire!" I ordered; only the earth dragons and a few ice dragons were capable of that, as the rest could only fire a singular shot. I had the siblings create an obstacle course while I watched the dragons do target practice, when Jane informed me that the course was ready I got the dragons attention "While you have been firing, my friends have created an obstacle course for you to take. It'll test out your agility and what you will do in certain situations, in the first round no one will shoot at you. In the second round however, you will be shot at. If a non-lethal rounds hits you, you will fall and act as if you are dead, you cannot be revived and your teammates will have to leave you there. Understood? Say 'Sir, yes sir' for yes 'sir, no sir' for no."

I got a loud "Sir yes sir!" from the dragons and we proceeded to the obstacle course, there were pits, pits with barbed wire over them, pits with tunnels, a 30 foot climbing wall made of wood, rope climbs, obstacles where they could trip and fall over, which will make the other dragons either have to advance without them or help them out. "Doesn't seem like much" I opined

"True, we couldn't really do much in such a short time and limited supplies, but we did configure them to a dragon's size" Admitted Jake

I sighed "Alright, grab the Lewis guns and load them with non-lethal rounds. Plastic rounds to be exact"

"Right away" He said

As Jake and the other siblings went to get the materials, I stood at the end of the course and had the dragons commence the course. First up was the leopard crawl in the pit, which was done perfectly by the dragons, including the one with the barbed wire. The one with the tunnels however was a bit slower since there were fifty dragons and three tunnels, a few got stuck but they managed wiggle out by themselves or by the help of other dragons. The rope climbs must've been a small struggle since they were careful not to cut the rope. There were even more crawling pits to exhaust the dragons I guess, which seemed to work as they got a bit sluggish after 3 repeats of it, it was then time for the tripwires as I call it. Most of them fell over but managed to get up, after falling over again and again, only a few dragons managed to trip a few times. They finished the obstacle course and they all lined up in front of me, all the dragons seemed winded except one. A light blue dragon with piercing blue eyes and patterning along his back, his name was Tikal "Tikal!" I said "All these dragons seem exhausted except you, why is that?" I asked

"Because unlike these dragons, I used to be a warrior in the draconic army. Probably the only one that survived the invasion. My comrades were being killed left and right, the order was given that all soldiers retreat to the catacombs along with the civilians. I looked for my mate; Kina, and found her. We soon rushed into the catacombs and stayed there, until they attacked and we went into here. Before all that I trained for many hours perfecting my skills, this is nothing" he commented

"I see.. Well don't get cocky. Unless you want to end up like your comrades in Warfang, cockiness equals underestimating your enemy, underestimating your enemy equals severely injured to death" I told him

The siblings got back with the firearms and ammo, I had the dragons go back to the start of the course, we set Lewis guns at the beginning and at the end of the course. The dragons commenced and we unleashed fire, making it harder for the dragons to complete their mission. Only a few dragons were shot and fell "dead" at the beginning but when it got to the tunnels, rope climbs and the 30 foot wall, that's where the dragons took the most casualties, which is where they took the most casualties. At the end maybe ten dragons survived, Tikal including. After running the obstacle course, the dragons used more and more teamwork which lessened casualties. We decided to have them stop and give them a small break. After the break we had them create a circle and have them spar, to test out their reactions in CQC (close quarter combat), how they fight, not against us however. They were to spar each other, a human against a dragon in CQC isn't a good for the human as the human may get killed if it were a real fight, that and they would break their hands on dragon scales. Not surprisingly, Tikal one almost every match that went against him. We had one last test, run and gun, which was where we set up ammo boxes in certain positions and as the name suggests they have to run and shot the ammo boxes as they run. Most of the dragons that went through it were dead accurate, some less than others but still good shots.

Training was over at 7 pm "That's enough for today! Go home and rest, tomorrow the medical dragons will commence training here" I announced. I dismissed the dragons and they went home, Stix and I left a little later after putting the materials back. The rest left a few hours later to prepare dinner; "What's for dinner?" Barged in Stix as he kicked open the door

"Stix, you really need to stop barging in. I swear, one of these days your going to barge in and someone is going to be wearing nothing but a bath towel" sighed Jake "Speaking of bath towels, we found a good water source and attached a water gem to the water source, we then connected another water gem to the shower, it started working"

"Gem?" I wondered

"Do dragons not use gems?" asked Jake

"No, we use crystals and some other things. I've never heard of anything like that" I answered

"Ok, well in this world there are elemental gems that can be linked to each other. Once linked, the gems can do multiple things. Gems can be found in multiple places, mostly by mining. Depending on the color, the gems will have an element. The gems we used are water, so they were blue. We linked the water gem to another one and we connected a base to the gem, in this case, the base was the shower. As for the first gem, we simply dropped it into a lake miles away outside of the wall. So if the shower is being used the gem in the lake will absorb the water and the one inside the bathroom will pour it out. So that's basically how it works in a nutshell" he explained

As I looked around I noticed that Jane was nowhere to be seen "Hey, where'd Jane go?"

"Oh she's-" Jake started

"She's out in the chicken house getting eggs. I'm still here though" Maria blurted

"I'll go look for her" I stated

"She'll be fine. Please sit, I've even reserved a seat next to me, just for you" she urged

It was obvious that Maria was into me, the thing was... I was actually more into Jane. Keyword was, you'll find out what happened much later in the whole story.

"I appreciate the offer but it'll be awkward just sitting in silence. Besides I'm not a good conversation starter" I said as I went out. It was true, if I sat with someone, the room would be dead quiet. For making me talk, someone would have to start the conversation and keep it going. As I flew to the barn I noticed that it was getting dark soon, since there weren't any lights it would be dark and only moonlight to guide her way, which wasn't very bright. If Jane did get the eggs out of the hen house she wouldn't know where to go and probably get lost. I landed next to the house and turned to my human form "Jane you need help?" I offered as I got into the fence

"Yeah, these hens don't feel like giving up their eggs" Jane explained

"Understandable, if I were a hen I wouldn't like to give up my unborn children who are in an egg" I stated as a hen nearly pecked my eye out "Hey!".

Jane laughed, "Didn't you eat eggs in the morning though?"

As if in response the hens started crowing, clucking and pecking everywhere in my body "Do you want me to help or do you want them to peck me to death!"I fumed

She laughed "You might want to get out for a bit" she advised

"Yeah, yeah..." I muttered as I got out "You know if you didn't need my help all you needed to say was a simple 'no' would have sufficed"

Jane quickly came out with a basket full of eggs "Sorry, I just wanted to mess with you a bit" she explained

I sighed "Need a ride? It's pretty hard to maneuver when it's dark" I turned to my dragon form

"Sure" she replied as she got on "Just be careful. I don't want egg all over me when we get to the house"

We got home I turned human and they started the cooking the meal, the smell was somewhat familiar. Just scrambled eggs and asparagus that I assume they brought with them. You would think that it would've spoiled by now... it didn't taste bad though. It tasted a bit like Aquarius' cooking, the taste of it almost brought a tear to my eye. Keyword: Almost; I was a young man, "men don't cry no matter what" is what I stood beside. I managed to wipe what would have become a tear when hopefully no one was looking. When all was said and done I decided to go to bed and not be stared at by Maria who was right next to me. Was I really that attractive, I didn't feel like it; when I lived in the earth realm and I called myself some uplifting things like that I was very attractive, or smart; a big part of me didn't believe myself and when I joked about it with my friends they even said in a joking yet serious tone "You wish!" or "fat chance". I had and still have very low self esteem so something like that really put me down. I even contemplated suicide a few times...

No matter how much I struggled, I couldn't fall asleep and just stared at the ceiling, I felt something was... wrong for lack of a better word, like something was watching me. Maybe it was because of all the creepypasta I read and listened to but I thought that if I looked to my sides I would see a horrible, disgusting grotesque pale face with stitched eyes and mouth with a long slender body staring at me or maybe an alternate version of Jeff the killer. I kept looking up but I gathered the courage to look to my right... nothing; I looked to my left and expected to see nothing also but instead I saw a silhouette of a human girl standing just outside my balcony, I blinked and she was gone. Maybe my eyes were playing tricks on me because of the paranoia but I swear I saw something. My eyes finally grew heavy and I went to sleep, I woke up the next morning feeling tired, like I got no sleep at all. I walked down the stairs and into the control room to give the announcement to the dragons "All medical dragon, report to the military sector at 9 AM, over and out" I groggily ordered.

"You know" I head Jane speak behind me "We could teach the medics how to save someone's life and first aid; you could watch or stay here and rest"

"You sure?" I asked "You don't have to"

"Yeah, I think we can handle them" affirmed Jake

"Since when were you up?" I asked

"Oh we were up since our rooster crowed. We've been working on the barn and we just came back for a small break"

"Alright, I guess it's fine. You guys do know about first aid and all that don't you" I questioned

"Yeah, like we said before. We came here to rule over this land, you can't take care of your people without knowing about first aid" explained Jane

"Okay" I sighed "take good care of them. Training starts in 30 minutes just so you know"

They both went out to probably tell the others and I served myself a meal of scrambled eggs. _Did they attach a water gem to the sink too?_ I thought, I went to the sink and saw an oval crystal like object placed behind the nozzle, I turned the dial for cold water and cold water came out. I finished eating and washed my dish, I quickly went to my room; opened my balcony doors for fresh air and collapsed on my bed. What I saw in my dream gave me both hope and fear; I saw around seventy dragons pulling a gigantic block of stone while being whipped, being told to work faster, even the hatchlings! Spyro and Cynder were in it too, their heads, sides and legs were bleeding. When I woke up I felt like I wanted to throw up but thankfully when it almost came out I managed to swallow it back down... gross. "I need toothpaste and mouthwash..." I groaned as I smelled by breath. I remember Aquarius taught me how to make create both of them but I simply never had the time, all I needed was: Coconut oil, baking soda, a container and an essential oil, in that case it was mint (as it was plentiful near Warfang) for the toothpaste, for the mouthwash all I needed was: Baking soda, water and an option would be the oil. I looked around the cabinets if by some chance they stored baking soda and coconut oil, they did have both, a decent amount, not a lot but a decent amount. I didn't know if they would mind if I used them but at that point I was getting desperate, my mouth literally smelled like a full trash bag that's been in the sun for far too long. I saw that they had a few containers, I took a pot and turned to my dragon form, careful not to knock over anything; I used my breath weapon to create boiling water and spewed it into the pot. I dropped a small glass jar into the pot and a small glass bottle as well. I waited for a couple of minutes and took them out, I emptied out the water from the pot and put in new lukewarm water into it. I mixed the coconut oil and the baking soda together and I forgot one thing, the mint oil. I Looked into what felt like 100 cabinets until I pulled out a small vial of mint oil, I added a few drops to the mix and stirred it. Voila, toothpaste; as soon as I finished, I worked on the mouthwash. In around five minutes I was finished and put everything away _These people are more advanced than I thought they were_ I thought. I turned into my human form, I realized I didn't have any toothbrush or twig so I had to resort to using my finger, I quickly dabbed my finger into the toothpaste and scooped out a bit of the paste. You should know how to brush your teeth so I'll spare you the details.

My breath smelled much better after that, I didn't have much to do but I always wondered what was outside the wall. I opened the doors and turned back to my dragon form "Time to explore around" I told myself as I took flight. Outside the walls was a vast forest full of many species of plant life and avian creatures. I landed and walked around, I discovered that outside were multiple types of edible types of plants and berries known to human and dragons. One dragon berry I saw was the shorktaw berry, it resembled a raspberry except it was white with purple dots known for a watermelon like flavor and sweetness. I kept walking around and saw a few strawberry plants, raspberries and more. I flew upward and saw gigantic trees that looked a lot like redwoods, I managed to land on the leaves and admire the beauty of the nature around me. I took the whole day exploring and the sun was going down, and I saw no wall around me... Welp, I was lost what then? I did what any sane person would do: Panic. I looked left and right, down and even up but no wall. I decided to fly even higher, even if the wall was nowhere in sight from where I was, I thought if I flew high enough I would be able to see at least a small bit of the "city"'walls which I did, I also saw the lake that I think was the lake that the water gem was dropped into. I flew to where I saw the walls and saw that I was on the opposite side of the mansion from where I flew the first place, I have no idea how I went the opposite direction of the wall without noticing the towering thing. I landed right next to the door and turned human, as soon as I opened the door I felt something slam into me and knock me on the ground. I closed my eyes as a reflex and when I opened my eyes to see Jane's beautiful honey colored eyes, Jane was on top of me. As soon as she realized what happened, she blushed and quickly got on her feet and regained her composure. "Where were you? We were worried sick!" She asked

"I decided to explore around the place outside the walls. I apologize for any inconvenience that I may have caused" I said

Jane sighed "It's okay... By the way did you see any containers go missing? We seem to have lost two"

"Oh those? I hope you don't mind but I used those to store homemade toothpaste and mouthwash" I answered

She sighed once again "Well, at least you used them for a good cause. To be honest, you're breath didn't smell all that well" she said as she moved from the doorway

I entered "Dinner is almost ready" she added; I nodded and entered, I'm assuming everyone heard what happened.

"By the way Maria, thanks for cooking most of the food that other day" I praised

John had a weird look on his face "What are you talking about? It was Jane who did most of the work. Maria's lousy at cooking, all she did was salt the food and set the table" he said as he gave Maria a look "If she tried to cook you a meal, I think she would accidentally poison you" he added

Maria was embarrassed and tried to sink under the table "Really? But Maria said that she did most of the work"

"I see..." John commented

When we finished, Maria was as red as a tomato, I don't know if it was because she was angry at John for spilling the beans, or if she was embarrassed that whole time.

Morning came and I gave the order for the engineer dragons, Jane took a good look at me "You still look tired do you want to stay and -" she started

"NO- er no thanks, it's boring when you're home alone with nothing to do" I ended

That was a lie, when you're home alone and bored out of your brain the most common thing I could do is sleep and I didn't want that dream again or something similar to it.


	12. Chapter 12

The sound of whip cracks filled the air in what was left of Warfang; the city of dragons was more of a dragon graveyard, a city of corpses. "Move it! Faster!" A dragon slayer yelled as he whipped a hatchling until the leader grabbed the man's hand.

"Hey take it easy on him, he's just a hatchling" said the leader

The emerald colored hatchling sighed in relief as the leader gently knelt and told him

"Now you know what we want you to do right? We want you to drag this seventy ton monument of me, right in the middle of the city which is 500 miles from here by the end of the day... or we'll take care of you like we did your parents" He said in a kind tone

The hatchling's eyes flooded as soon as he heard the last sentence and tried his best to pull the statue, except that all he could do was barely drag it an inch from where it was. The leader walked off laughing "Wow Carlos, you're cruel to even hatchlings" a slayer commented

"Who cares!" He shouted "Dragons are horrible evil creatures that don't deserve to live"

Spyro heard this as he was dragging another monument with a few dragons "I could say the same thing about you..." he growled under his breath

"Oh is that so!" shot Carlos as he grabbed the downward spiked mace from his belt "Care to say that..." he continued "...Again!" he retorded as he smashed the mace against Spyro's face, destroying what little scales he had left which sprinkled the ground with dragon blood. "Usually dragon scales are almost as hard as titanium...almost. With all those beatings you took trying to defend your 'mate', your scales were eventually ripped off; exposing your flesh. Which is every dragon's weakness, once the scales are removed the dragon can't take a hit. Also thanks to that little gadget" he pointed as a small, golden spider like like object on Spyro's neck "sucking out your energy, so you can't use your breath weapon. Face it, you're as defenseless as a baby. Like a lamb to the slaughter. And don't even try to fly, thanks to those shackles on your wings, which restrain you from even moving them" he pointed at two metal serpents binding his wings through green energy as how handcuffs bind a person's arms through a chain. "If you did try to break them off and succeed we we would shoot you down as soon as you were on the air. What was once the city you called home is now your grave and your prison" he said as he walked away.

"Maybe..." Spyro muttered "But I can still do this!" he could off the rope around his neck and charged at Carlos, horns at an angle where it would go through him like a hot knife through butter. He was soon stopped when a slayer speared him in the arm with a tactical halberd, Spyro shouted in pain. Carlos sighed "Unless you want to die.. I suggest you know. Your. Place!" Carlos warned as he kicked Spyro in the face

"It is better to die than suffer like this!" Spyro yelled

"Really?" Carlos queried "Well that can be arranged, but I'll let you and that black dragoness you love so much suffer for another two to three more days" he said as he continued to walk away. Spyro's eyes widened _What have I done!?_ He thought as rusty and heavy chains were put on his neck instead of rope.

Carlos was two years older than me; he was around 6'2, tan, brown hair and green eyes; he hated the very existence of dragon, even saying the words "Dragon" or "Dragoness" or any word that is related to dragons. He captured the Warfang and started to make Warfang into his own image, his workers were lazy and laggards however, so he enslaved some of the dragons that surprisingly survived their invasion. He made them drag what seemed like impossible tasks, like dragging giant monuments of himself and statues of saint george the dragon slayer. The guy pretty much worshiped the saint and a devoted follower of his work and whoever opposed him or saint George was struck down immediately, no matter how close the person was to him.

By midnight the dragons stopped their work and after a long day of back breaking toil, it felt like temporary heaven for all dragons, Including Spyro and Cynder. "So Cynder, how was slaving over the slayers again?" Spyro asked

"Horrible as always..." she grumbled "Carlos made it somewhat easier on us by having us dragging monuments 20 miles instead of thirty. I would rather be dragging monuments than being forced to fulfill their quote on quote 'special needs' of a dragon slayer." admitted Cynder remorsefully as tears started to swell her eyes.

Spyro immediately went to his future mate and nuzzled her "Hey, hey that's no way for you to talk; you were forced and couldn't do anything about it. Don't beat yourself up about it, I still love you and nothing will ever change that." he comforted

Cynder gave a slight smile at him and they both laid down on the hard and cracked stone floor.

"Hey Spyro?" she asked

"Yeah?"

"Do you think we'll ever see Enoch again?"

Spyro sighed "It pains me to say this but... no I don't think so. I mean, what are the chances of any of the dragon (if any survived) working with him. As I'm sure Aquarius has told him, dragons aren't very fond of humans. The chances of that are very slim to none. The only way we'll see Enoch is if he somehow breaks open the gates to the catacombs with enough dragons and weaponry to drive the slayers away. Besides, even if he does that... I'm sure it'll be too late..."

"Too late? Too late for what?"

Spyro gave no answer and had his back turned to her

"Spyro? Spyro tell me! Why did you say that!"

Trying not to sound like he was crying he answered her "I've sealed our fate... We'll be executed in a few days... if we're lucky."

Cynder became alarmed "Why? What happened?" she persisted

"I was tired of how he treated us and the dragonkin, one thing left to another, including trying to impale him with my horns and he gave the command to have us executed in three to five days" he said with a painstaking expression "I acted without thinking and shouted 'It is better to die than suffer like this"

"Oh Spyro!" Her emerald green eyes were now flooding and she laid down closer to Spyro, who was crying silently.

Morning came and it was time for the dragons to continue their torture; once again the air was filled with whip cracks and cries of pain.

"Yes... good... it's all coming together now, soon the city of dragons shall be the city of Saint George the dragon slayer and no one will rise up against us. We can burn a whole forest down and kill a whole civilization and no one will rise up against us! No one will oppose us!" Carlos laughed

"Not entirely..." a slayer commented

Carlos turned to him "And why is that?"

"What about your brother?" asked a female slayer

Carlos growled "My brother will die in a pool of his own blood and in the most brutal way if he dares to go against me!" he roared.

Carlos was never fond of his brother,he never saw him a lot but he always hated what he stood for. Those were just minor reasons however; Carlos was scared that his brother was stronger than him and Carlos wanted to intimidate him. He walked toward the doors of the catacombs and saw machine guns placed around the entrance "Are the defenses set up?" he asked

"Just these ones sir, we still have to set up more throughout the city

Carlos growled and hit the slayer in the back of the head "Work faster then!

The slayer grimaced and rubbed where Carlos hit him "You know..." he started "We would work faster if you didn't treat us like crap every day" he muttered

"My army! My rules!" Carlos affirmed

Carlos was also never a great leader, he was a spoiled brat who always got what hr wanted even if it meant bloodshed, he was hot headed and quick tempered, did whatever he wanted whenever he wanted. He started walking toward a stone monument of Saint George the dragon slayer and sat on the ground "Man I wish you were here to see me, I bet you would be proud of me if you saw all what I've accomplished" he said as he started to smoke a cigarette

"The only things you accomplished is kill a whole dragon tribe and took over a city, I bet Saint George completed twice as much" a male slayer remarked as he dragged the same hatchling as before by a chain

"Just shut up and prepare the sacrifice already!" he barked

"Right away sir" the slayer answered

He put the hatchling's head through a guillotine and blew a horn made of a dragon horn notifying that a sacrifice was about to take place. All dragons were forced to stop and watch the "sacrifice" while most of the slayers willingly watched. They all gathered around the monument of Saint George as a slayer with a black mask came and placed his hands on the lever.

"From us, the dragonslayers, your loyal people and followers. We offer up the sweet blood of a hatchling so that you may keep blessing us with more accomplishments like this!" Carlos announced

"Please... don't do this, I beg of you, I'll do anything!" the emerald hatchling begged the hatchling through tears

"Oh will you now? Then how about being a worthy sacrifice to our lord?" he asked rhetorically "Kill him" he ordered

The executioner was about to pull the lever but hesitated

"What are you waiting for! St. George needs a sacrifice!" Carlos persisted

The executioner released his hands from the lever "I can't... I can't do it anymore! I Can't sent an innocent creature to their death!" he objected

"Fine!" Carlos shouted as he got on the monument and shoved the executioner off the platform "If you want something done, you have to do it yourself!" he placed his hands on the lever and pushed it down. The hatchling's cries were choked out, the beautiful emerald scales were now stained with crimson red; the sacrifice was complete. The executioner fell on his knees and started crying; another slayer drained the little dragon's decapitated corpse into a bucket and drew a blood cross on their shields, weapons and armor. When that was done, they poured the rest of the blood around the statue in a circle. Carlos looked at Spyro and Cynder who were horrified (including the rest of the dragons) and mouthed the words "You're next!"


	13. Chapter 13

Metal working and war cries filled the air "Don't let them get close to the wall!" someone shouted

"There's a machine gun in the bunkers!" Another one warned

It was chaos, the sound of explosions from grenades, mortar shells and missile type weapons was sounding out throughout the field. People probably close to death are crying for a medic, only for their cries to be ignored by either those who don't care, or those who didn't hear them. Bodies of the dragons who survived the invasion were on the ground, not moving and possibly lifeless. The counterattack on the slayers was a failure and all who attacked were either killed or captured.

Is what would have been if that wasn't a training mission! "NO, NO,NO!" I roared "Squads A through C! Your job was to cover Squads D and E while they flanked on each side and also cover platoons A and B while they made a full frontal assault! Instead you did your own thing and got everyone killed! What on earth did you NOT understand!?" It was the second day of combat training and the second training mission for the dragon army and they failed both miserably "I swear, if you can't fight and defeat six humans then what chance do you have against an army of over 100 men who are well trained!" the dragons stood silent. I felt like I was ordering a bunch of 7th and 8th graders, they didn't listen and obey a single order, most of them anyway. I walked up to a dragon with grey and black scales "What's your excuse!" I demanded

"Sir, excuse for what sir!?" He asked

"I'll be asking the frikkin questions here soldier! Do you understand!"

"Sir, yes sir!"

"Very good, can I be in charge for once!"

"Sir, yes sir!"

"Now tell me what you were doing in the mission!"

"Sir, I was flanking on the right sir!"

"Don't you frikkin lie to me! Admit it! You were flirting with one of the females from squad C even though you should have been flanking with your squad which was squad D!"

"Sir, I admit it sir!

I turned to face the rest of the dragons "Do you see what I mean!?" I asked "Almost none of you can follow a single and very simple order! And why is that!" the dragons stood silent once more "Well!? I'm waiting for an answer!" they looked nervously at each other "Now!"

"Sir, because Jake and the rest are making it harder for us to attack them, sir!" responded Sarah who was in the medical team

I put on a fake smile "Oh I'm deeply sorry! Would you like me to tell them to stop firing rubber bullets at you and serve you tea and crumpets! Heck! Let's give you a massage to relieve your combat stress while at it!" I said sarcastically "You are NOT going to have it easy with the slayers! They are not going to say 'Oh I'm sorry. I'll stop shooting at you so you can kill me' They don't care if they're giving you a hard time, you need to fight your hardest! Do you want to reclaim Warfang or not!?" they were all quiet. I sighed "Let's do this again! This time follow orders! No playing, no flirting and NO doing your own thing!" I got into the bunker, reloaded my Lewis gun and 1906 Springfield and armed myself

"You know, you should really take it easy on them. They're doing their best. Some of them at least." commented Jane

"Jane, listen. I can't afford to take it easy on them right now, they'll get lazy soon and I won't be able to control the army. An army needs structure and discipline, an army works as a single unit with teamwork and effort. If they can't be like that, we might as well not attack because if we attack at this state we WILL get slaughtered in the first seconds of the fight. All our efforts would be for nothing, there will be no other force rising against them. Well, no other force that would stand a chance." I answered. The dragons got into position and Jake shot a green flair in the sky, signifying that the mission was starting, the dragons let out their war cries and shots were fired. It seemed that for once the dragons were listening to orders, one group stayed, another one went to the left, one to the right and another going directly in front. I grabbed my Lewis gun and started to fire at the incoming dragons from the front. Jake was handling a semi-auto rifle called a Mondragon, John used a BAR and the rest used SMLE's. Minutes after I saw Maria get stunned by an electricity shot and she fell on her back, I looked to the sides and grinned. The dragons stood on task and they were flanking, I took a few shots and the right, left, and the front, some dragons fell down and acted as dead. The dragons in the frontal assault laid down suppressive fire, it was only a matter of time before the dragons surrounded us and overran us. Jake and John were hit by a sludge bomb and were down, it was me, Stix and Jane left. I soon ran out of ammo and switched to the 1906 and took down dragons one by one, the flankers reached the trench where we were and took down Stix and Jane with a swipe of a tail. I was all alone, I went to the far left corner of the bunker and waited for the dragons. I managed to take down 5 dragons before I had to reload, as I struggled to get the stripper clip out of my pocket, a hole was blown up behind me a few inches to my left. As soon as I pushed the rounds in the internal magazine I saw a teal covered dragon tail hit me in the face, I was knocked out. I woke up to see grinning dragon faces "So" started the black and grey dragon "You think we can follow orders now?" he asked as he extended his arm to help me off the cold concrete floor I took his arm and I got up to dust myself off "Yeah, I think so" I chuckled "We'll run the mission again just to make sure though. Once again the dragons got in position and attacked, and once again they aced the mission with only around 5 "casualties" I announced the day we were to attack. "Everyone! Tomorrow we attack and reclaim Warfang. Does someone have a map of Warfang?" some of the dragons shook their heads

"I can draw one" offered Brutus

"Go ahead" I affirmed

The dragons gave Brutus some space and he drew a map of Warfang, down to the last detail; he even went the extra mile and drew a map of the catacombs also to the last detail. "We'll all gather around the portal that brought us here at six in the morning, we'll then go in and we'll gather here" I pointed to the portal where Cyrill showed me "Our most armored units will go up front to take the most damage and provide cover for the rest of us if the machine guns have any missile type weapons like machine guns. If we can't clear the catacombs entrance we'll fall back and head toward the other exit of the catacombs. It's a long walk from there to Warfang but it's better than being killed. We'll take our two, two seater Renault tanks with us who will be piloted by Jane, John, Maria and Stix. The Renault are very slow so we'll have to walk with them. Regardless if we clear the entrance of the catacombs or take the other way, once we get to Warfang we'll split the army into two parts, one part will go left and the other right. We'll walk around the outer edge and take out as many slayers as we can, after 30 minutes we'll regroup the army at the entrance of the catacombs and march straight into the street. Assuming we have killed all slayers around there, it should be a smooth march toward the actual army and surprise attack them. Meanwhile, since Jake offered to be the sniper, he will be sharp shooting from a building for us. Once we surprise attack the slayers, we will defeat them and free the dragons that are hopefully still alive. So that's the plan. Does anyone have any questions?" I asked

Sarah raised a wing "Yeah, where in the realm are we going to find armor?"

"Ah, good question. You hear that metal working? You know the hammers and other things? That's the sound of the blacksmith dragons who didn't participate forging their tails off, their finest armor and tail guards for each of the dragons, including me. Any others?" the dragons we silent "Then it's settled, dismissed!"

As the dragons were walking home I approached the black and grey dragon "Hey I forgot to ask you this, but what's your name? I tend to forget names in large amounts"

"Oh, it's Azureth. Remember that name when everyone starts respecting you. You'll say thing like 'I remember Azureth when he was just a hatchling, he was always the dragon who would do anything for a dragoness. SO if there's any lonely dragon girls in need of a boyfriend, Azureth is here to fulfill your female needs" he grinned

"No promises" I laughed "Just don't flirt on the battlefield, that'll get you and the dragoness your flirting; with killed" I warned


	14. Chapter 14

I and the rest of the siblings woke up at four; sort of. Jane, Stix, Maria, Jake and John were at least half awake, I wasn't awake at all though. Stix literally had to drag me out of bed! It was a struggle to stay awake, I usually never got up so early so I was bobbing to sleep and struggling to finish my eggs. I'm surprised I didn't face plant into the food and fall asleep. After breakfast we went to the armory and it was a cold morning in the lands, a little windy too. I turned to my dragon form and we went to the military sector, as I was still very tired I struggled to keep myself in the air; especially because there was wind around. We managed to get there without falling off the air, we got to the armory and supplied ourselves with weapons and armor. I grabbed a 1906 and 1861 Springfield. After putting on the green fatigues, I put on the woven cotton pattern webbing with all accessories, including the shovel equipment 'cause why not; it's somewhat small, compact and has a sharpened edge for slicing attacking enemies if they get too close. It looked like someone had some spare time because I saw in a crate that there were minié rounds already in wax paper, separated by a small cord where the black powder was in the bottom half. I trusted my gut and put the minié rounds in my haversack for I thought there was no other place to put it, I also put on a brodie helmet. I looked like an actual world war one soldier. I saw that the rest were wearing similar clothing and armor as me, some of them we wearing bandoleer equipment, some were wearing pattern equipment. I saw that john carried a BAR, Stix carried a Lewis gun, Jake carried what looked like an SMLE and the girls both used the mondragon rifle.

As we left we were about to take our beeswax ear protection but we could barely hear thing with them, even our own voices so we just decided to ditch the ear protection and hope we didn't go deaf. The siblings went in the Renault tanks and I flew Jake to the portal platform, as soon as I was done with that I flew the tanks over there as well. I flew them to the place where the portal frame was and no one was around. I hate when a certain time is placed and no one comes at that certain time, I don't appreciate non-punctual people, they leave you waiting in an area for what feels like forever and then they come with some stupid excuse like they forgot something or they had to do something first. Around 15 minutes later the dragons finally started coming "It's about time..." I muttered. A few minutes later it looked like all dragons were there, but just in case "Is there anyone missing?" I asked, they all looked at each other and shook their heads. I nodded and walked up to the panel that had a hand imprint, I placed my hand on it and felt the familiar prick as last time. "Teleport location: Warfang, exact location: Underground catacombs." I said; the frame started to swirl green ooze and filled the whole fame. I entered the portal and we were back in what was left of the catacombs. The ceiling still held but there were parts of the roof that fell to the ground, I was amazed.

"I'm surprised the roof didn't fall on us" marveled Sarah

"Yeah, let's keep it that way. We don't want to die just yet"

"That wouldn't be so bad..." muttered Maria who was a driver "Did you forget to put foot deodorant!? Seriously, it smells like a garbage dump over here!"

"Ah quit yer blubberin'!" snapped Stix in a fake Scottish accent who was the gunner in Maria's tank "You haven't smelled the worst"

"Quiet!" I hissed "you'll blow our cover!"

I had the heavily armored units (including Tikal) in the front and the less armored units (including Sarah) in the back parts of the formation. The few engineer dragons (compared to the rest) were put in front of the medics but behind the tanks who were put in the back. While the engineers could repair the tanks, I didn't want them to malfunction in the heat of battle in the front, they would be very defenseless and could get destroyed right then and their. "Stay in formation and don't break off unless you are ordered to" I commanded, I was behind the heavily armored units. I gave the order to move forward, as we moved I halted the advance when we reached the catacomb doors. I gulped; it was do or die time, we either win the battle with the very little forces I had or we die trying to liberate Warfang. I remembered all those who were either captured and/or killed by the slayers, Spyro, Cynder, master Aquarius and more; I clenched my fist. "Everyone, this is the day we've trained for. This is the day that we take back Warfang, for your friends and family. This is for all the dragonkin!" Open the doors" the heavy armored units started to open the doors and I started to load my 1903 Springfield. As soon as the doors were opened all we saw was a nest of machine guns but no slayer in sight. "Stay sharp! They could be hiding somewhere" I informed. As we slowly got out of the catacombs I noticed sounds that sounded like something crawling. I halted the advance and stepped out of formation; I looked around the machine guns and raised my rifle. It was still a little dark outside so I could see little of my surroundings "It looks like the coast is-" I couldn't finish my sentence because someone attacked me, I could only assume it was a slayer as he landed a few punches to my chest area but he quickly retreated and grabbed his hand, he must've punched wrong and broke his wrist. I quickly took that chance and headbutted him, kicking him down and pulling the trigger on his head. I reloaded a new round in the chamber. As soon as that happened I heard machine gun fire, according to Sarah the heavily armored dragons turned sideways and raised their wings so that the rounds hit the armor and their wings. One of the dragons fired an illuminating fireball to act as a flare and I saw the slayers surrounding us. One of the gunners saw me and aimed the beast at me, I quickly ducked behind the sandbags, all the rounds hit the slayer who was right next to me. The Renault tanks Stix and Jane fired from the tanks as soon as they got a chance and blew up a few machine guns along with their gunners. I shouted my war cry and rushed to another slayer and hit one in the head with the butt of my rifle. I slung the rifle and took out the shovel, I swung and sliced a slayers neck with the sharpened side, I then jabbed the shovel into another one's stomach and used the flat side of the shovel on his face like a mace. The armored dragons put their wings down and they started using their breath weapons against them. Around 10 minutes later the sun was finally rising and I thought all the slayers in the area were eliminated until I saw one of the slayers running to me and waving a mace, I sighed and as soon as he got close to me I grabbed the arm with the mace , used my free hand and repeatedly hit him with the shovel until he was dead and maybe a bit more, like twenty more times... or fifty... counting's hard.

"Did we have any casualties?" I asked, covered in dragon slayer blood

"No, but we do have a few injured" answered a pink dragoness with feathered red wings and golden eyes; her name is Kina.

"We'll stop here for now then and tend to the wounded while the rest will have a rest" I ordered "And for me to wash this blood off of me..." I grumbled. I put the shovel back in its place and took my canteen of water. I opened the cap and started to scrub off the blood from the skin while the rest examined every dragon in the formation and started to heal the injured ones. Once all the wounded were treated we advanced and I got back in the formation. Around 30 minutes later we reached a fork in the road with three paths and I had the army split into two parts of fifty dragons each and one tank. I went with the one that went to the right and so did Jake, the other group went to the path on the left. We did according to the plan and spent thirty minutes. Around 20 minutes into our march Jake saw a good place to snipe "Enoch, I'll go in this building, you go on ahead and I'll cover you from here" said Jake

"Okay, would you like one of us to take you to the very top? It's a long walk in these houses, we could also bring you to the roof if you want" I offered

"No thanks. The house should offer enough protection if I'm spotted" he kindly refused

"Alright. Good luck and stay safe"

Jake nodded and opened the door to the building. We continued on our walk and took out all the slayers we could see. After thirty minutes passed we walked back to where the fork was and met up with the other half. We formed back into the rectangular formation we were in before and continued our march. Through the march I saw what looked like the tip of the barrel of Jake's gun, he poked out his head a bit and gave a thumbs up. As we marched through the middle road we didn't find many slayers, and the ones we did see took their own lives before we could do anything. What I did see however was a sea of dragon bodies, either from those that failed to escape slavery or the poor souls from the invasion. The sight revolted me; I couldn't believe how cruel they could be, some bodies we so mangled you couldn't make out their tail from their head. Excluding those who killed themselves, there were no more slayers on our route "Strange... " mentioned Tikal "They came with so many last time, why are they so little? I don't like this feeling I'm getting..."

We took a small break for around five minutes to rest our feet, after that we got back in formation but this time the tanks were put in front and the engineers behind the heavily armored dragons and behind me. I looked back and behind me to see Jake motioning from the building to the front of us, I turned to my dragon form since I had better vision with it and Jake had a concerned look on his face, I saw him mouth the words "Execution" and "Guillotine". I was confused so I raised my medium sized wings and flew a bit upward. I saw large group of humans with what looked like enslaved dragons. One a platform I saw two guillotines and one dragon in front of each, both of them somewhat descaled and completely descaled by the neck. It wasn't long before I recognized the dragons. I couldn't believe they were still alive! I flew back into the formation "Double time!" I ordered, the marching moved faster and faster into a run "Listen up! The slayers are hosting an execution of two dragons! A beheading to be exact, of two dragon heroes! Spyro and Cynder! My diagnosis is that they're using this as a fear tactic to keep anyone who rebels against them in place! We need to get there before that happens got it!?" I asked

I got a nice and loud "Sir yes sir!" I would NOT let any of my dragon loved ones die again! Not this time! "Tankers! I know you have smoke shells in them, when I say 'smoke out!' you will fire a smoke canister, when the smoke screen spreads we'll disperse and attack the slayers from all sides. Understand!?"

"You got it!" Answered Stix

"Let's show these cowards what we're made of!" shouted Jane

We were half a mile left from the execution platform, the slayers saw us and raised their weapons at us, ready to fire.

I saw Cynder in the hole of the guillotine, she was smiling as she saw me and the army of 100 dragons moving forward. Spyro had a relieved look on his face.

"So, I see you survived! Impressive, I could have sworn you would have been dead days ago" he looked at the tanks "And I see you've made some friends! I thought you were the loner type though!" said Carlos

I was alarmed, how could he know that about me? We stopped around 180 feet from them

"What? No greeting? No 'It's been a long time' or 'It's nice to see you'? Honestly, I'm a bit hurt that you're not the least happy to see me, especially after I spared you that day." Remarked Carlos

I growled "Why would I be happy to see the leader of the enemy of my kind!" I shouted

"Oh, oh that's rich! You really think you're one of these beasts?" he laughed "I'll reveal who you truly are! You are a human of Hispanic origin who moved from the states to Mexico to the states again! Father abandoned you when you were five years old and you made many friends since then being cared by mother, you had to leave them however when she almost got you killed. Am I right or am I right?"

I clenched my fist "Release Spyro and Cynder now or else!" I roared

"Oh I'll release them alright! I'll release them from their bodies so that their souls may be offered as a sacrifice to the almighty saint George!" He challenged

"I'll kill you! For your sins against the dragonkin!"

"Kill me you say? I think you need to get your eyes checked! Do you see this massive army compared to your teeny tiny sorry excuse for an army!?" he sighed "I really wish I didn't have to do this but... oh who am I kidding? I'd love to! Kill them all!"

The slayers were just about to pull the trigger until I heard a shot from seemingly Jake as a round went straight through a slayer's helmet and into his skull

"Sniper!" a slayer warned

"Smoke out!" I commanded and the tanks shot the smoke shots which covered the whole area in smoke. The dragons dispersed into individuals and groups. I took the time to turn into my human form and quickly load my 1863 and went into action. I kept hearing terrified human screams as the smoke started to clear. I saw Carlos push someone off the stage and shout "If you want something done you have to do it yourself!" The smoke cleared just enough so I could see his hand on the guillotine lever, I aimed the rifle and shot a minié round into him. The round hit and I heard the sound of bones cracking, Carlos quickly put his hands off the machine and looked at his hand which now had a bleeding hole in it with a piece of flattened lead, I slung the 1863 and switched to the 1903 and ran at him. I hit his chest with the butt of my rifle and he fell down and the smoke cleared, I looked back and I saw Cynder no longer in the hole but free instead. Spyro or one of the other dragons must have broken her out somehow. I looked back at Carlos "I warned you didn't I?" as just as I was about to pull the trigger Carlos moved out of the way and sweep kicked me in the shins, I fell but quickly got back up to see Carlo's grinning face. I took the shovel that was still covered in blood and swung it at his arm which missed. Carlos took the opportunity to punch me in the face but I used my free hand to block and deflect it out of the way.

I readied up for another swing and hit him in the side with the sharpened side, Carlos quickly placed his hand to the wound and trying to apply pressure on it. I quickly sidestriked his head with the bottom of the shovel which caused him to fall down. As I stood over him I raised the shovel over my head and about to swing down at his head until he stopped me by saying "You wouldn't kill your own brother would you Enoch!?" there was a short moment of silence

"What... did you just say?" I put the shovel down to my side

"I'm your brother! My name is Carlos Luis" he affirmed

"You're lying! My mom told me she lost the baby from the stress of being a teacher!"

"She lied. She was too ashamed to keep me for some reason so she put me up for adoption as soon as I was old enough."

I didn't know what I should have done. Raise the shovel and kill the leader of the major threat to dragons or spare someone who claims to be family. I heard a battle cry and looked behind me, I saw a slayer ram a spear into one of my dragon's arms. The dragon quickly swatted the slayer away and removed the spear which only got caught in between his scales.

"Join me! You know the body of a dragon's ins and outs, you know their strengths and weaknesses. Join me and together we will rid the world of the scourge that is the dragons!" reasoned Carlos. I didn't give it a second thought, I have made a vow that I will defend the dragons and I will not break the dragon's trust! Why would I join the person who claims to be my family just to gain my trust and take innocent lives?

"Never!" I roared "I don't care if you are my brother! I will never betray the dragons, one certain dragon could have easily killed me but he didn't you know why? Because he didn't see a heartless killer inside be but a brave warrior who fights for freedom! Someone who fights for what's right, and defends the weak! That dragon raised me as his own, and his name was Aquarius. A dragon your men mercilessly killed! He parented me, acted like the father I never had, only to have his life taken away! But I'm not fighting as vengeance for him, no. Not just him, but this is for all the innocent lives you and your forces have take away! I have made a vow that I will defend all the dragons no matter what, even if it kills me! And that's a promise I intend to keep!" I slammed the shovel down the shovel on his face but he dodged by only an inch. Carlos kicked me off him and he got back to his feet "So be it! You'll die in a pool of your own blood, just like the rest of the dragons you care for so much!" he yelled

As I got back to my feet I saw Carlos closed the distance and punched me directly in the stomach which knocked the wind out of me. I struggled to breath, I looked behind me and the battle with the slayers and the dragons continued. Jake shot another round into Carlos' arm and he screamed in pain. I regained my breath and I saw a sword come out of the chaos attached to a severely burnt severed hand and landed at my feet. I took the sword and ripped the severed hand off, I swung it at Carlos dodged, he grabbed his bleeding shoulder and headbutted me but he cut his forehead open from the helmet I was wearing. I grabbed the sword by the blade with both my hands and initiated a murder stroke against his head. He was knocked off his feet but still conscious and laying on the ground, I took a few steps back and raised the 1903 at his head and looked at his eyes"Get out of here and out of Warfang and out of the dragon realm. You don't belong here and this realm doesn't need you killing its people. Today we may have fought as brothers but the next time we meet, we will be enemies and I won't hesitate to kill you" I walked to him and drove the sword deep into his right leg. Carlos screamed as I drove it through his leg, after I was done I walked back flipping him off. Carlos called a retreat and two surviving slayers went to him and started to carry him, the slayers that survived started running out of the entrance and scatter everywhere while the dragons kept pelting them with their breath weapons, some slayers were shot and killed by Jake's sniping and some were blown up by the tanks who only had a few dents on them . Too many slayers to count died as they retreated, when all was done; the floor was littered with slayer bodies and no dragon bodies, it seemed that the enslaved dragons ran away or scattered through Warfang. The only dragons who didn't run away, were Spyro and Cynder. As the medical dragons tended to the wounds of Spyro and Cynder I had the rest search for the ones that were enslaved. A few hours passed and the medics saw that it was safe enough to use red crystal on them, as the medics handed them a few red crystals the dragons took them and shattered them. New scales started to grow on the dragons, both Spyro and Cynder were looking like how I saw them after waking up at Aquarius' house. I was overjoyed to see them alive, I took off my helmet and hugged them both with small tears streaming down my face.

"I told you that you'll see us again didn't I?" remarked Spyro "I never said when or what condition we were in"

"You could have died though" I reminded

"But we didn't, thanks to you Enoch. Once again you have saved our lives" comforted Cynder

The enslaved dragons were rounded up and their shackles removed, in relief they shook themselves and the medics tended to their wounds. I walked up to the platform and knocked off the guillotines from it "Everyone!" I started "The dragon slayers have ran away like the cowards they are. You are free now, no longer enslaved; some of you may be wondering why I rescued you from slavery. To put it simple, I have made a vow that I will defend the dragons with my life; you may think I'm a lowly human that cares only for myself, that is not true. For I was and still am one of you, in this form and..." I walked toward them as I turned into my dragon form, those who didn't know about it gasped "That's right, for months I have walked among you, ate among you and lived among you; only three dragons knew about this and those are Spyro, Cynder and the deceased Aquarius. Excluding the rest of the guardians which would be Terrador, Cyrill and chatterbox Volteer" the dragons chuckled at my joke about Volteer "

"What's your point?" asked an orange scaled dragon

I turned to him "My point is that while I maybe originally human, I am different than the rest. Maybe if I tell you my story, you'll understand" as I told them my story until then, they were all in shock at my experiences "Now that you know my past, what will you do? Will you stay in the valley of Avalar and in Warfang, or will you help me populate the city I will call New Warfang in an unknown land. Whatever your choice be, I will respect and even help clean Warfang so that you may not be reminded of the slayer's short rule. Before I ask if you will join me or not, I ask that you see New Warfang and the land surrounding it. After that, you can make your choice." I announced

The dragons nodded their heads and we headed toward the catacombs to where the portal was.


	15. Chapter 15

I had half of the army stand guard and watch Warfang so that the slayers wouldn't take Warfang again (Or at least hold them off while waiting for backup). Because Brutus was hot headed, I decided to have him stay because if they did attack he would probably be best at attacking the slayers or have the soldiers attack. Azureth begged me to go with us to New Warfang because he said he saw some very attractive dragonesses coming with us. I think after all they went through they don't even want to think about relationships so I didn't think it was a good idea to bring him with me, so I didn't. I activated the portal and proceeded to New Warfang, when we got through I introduced the dragons to the city and had them look around the land as long as they stayed inside or close to the walls. Maria immediately burst out of the Renault "Can we not use those things again!? I think my nose hairs were burnt off because of that stench!"

Stix climbed out after her "I don't know what you're talking about, I didn't smell a thing" commented Stix

"Maybe because you're used to your own smell..." argued Maria "I swear you smell like a pig sty... Have you taken a single shower since we got here!?"

"...Nope"

Poor Maria, she had to deal with his stink everyday. Good thing I didn't have anyone like that when I grew up. I took my helmet off and stretched out on the platform of the portal. I saw John standing over me "Hey Enoch, can I talk to you for a bit? It won't take long" he promised

"Sure, what's on your mind?" I asked

John looked around "I don't think here is a good place to talk about it. Let's head over to the wall and talk about it there"

"...Ok then..." I turned into my dragon form and flew us over to the wall "Okay, we're here. What did you want to tell me?"

"My sister Maria told me not to tell anyone about this but I feel you need to know now that the slayers are over." John took a deep breath "Maria has a crush on you; she likes you, like REALLY likes you"

I was shocked, one because I never saw myself as an attractive person and two: I didn't think she of all people would fall in love with me "I appreciate that she has feeling for me but... I'm afraid I don't have the same feelings for her"

John nodded "I see..."

"I do have a few feelings for Jane however"

"Really? Well it's best that Maria doesn't hear you, she gets quite jealous in these situations. Why do you think that she took the credit when she made breakfast that day?"

"That explains it"

"What will you say if Maria says she likes you? If you y the wrong words she'll be shattered"

"I'll have to let her down easy. That's the only way I can think of, but right now I have to think about my future kingdom. I have to expand the city population and the city itself, increase the military, create and set up laws including a police force. Infrastructure will be needed, streets possibly more buildings for either homes or business buildings and so on, I have a lot of things on my plate" I explained

"That's true... you know I and some of my brothers and sisters could help if you want" Offered John

"I would like that" I accepted "But right now I have to make sure two dragons are married since the ceremony was never completed"

John looked confused "Who?"

"Remember the black dragoness and the purple dragon?"

"Yeah"

"Those two are Spyro and Cynder, on their wedding day the ceremony was interrupted and the pastor couldn't pronounce them as mates, so unfortunately they are still an unmarried couple"

"I'm sure they can wait"

"Maybe... but I don't want to have them wait even more though"

We got off the wall and talked about how the city will start to grow and what laws will be set up. I know I wanted the first ten laws to be the ten commandments from The Bible, as they made good points, including the fact that I was and still am a Christian. The first law would be

There shall be no other gods before the all mighty God of heaven

No one shall make for themselves any graven images of anything that is on or in the ground, in the seas or in the heavens above, they shall not bow down to them nor serve them

No one shall say or take God's name in vain or in jest

To remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy, for six days they can work but no one will be able to work on the seventh day, also known as Saturday. For in six days God has made the heavens and the earth and all that is in them, but rested on the seventh day and hallowed it, making it holy.

Everyone should honor their father and mother, treat them kindly even if they don't treat you the same way. Treat them with honor and respect, for they have put you in the world.

They shall not murder or kill

They shall not commit adultery, meaning they shall not cheat on their spouse or future spouse. Meaning that you can't cheat on your boyfriend or girlfriend either.

They shall not steal

They shall not lie

They shall not covet anyone's belongings or wife. Meaning they shall not desire for it wrongfully, so they wouldn't want their friend's spouse as their own or see their friend's new computer as their own

Including other laws like

All drug use will be banned throughout the land, including things such as marijuana and meth

Alcohol consumption will be banned throughout the land

Smoking of any kind will be illegal

The only exception I made is the no killing one, military personnel are the only ones who are allowed to kill, however that exception is only in wartime when they're fighting the enemy and cannot kill an innocent person for obvious reasons

Those are only a few of the laws I've created.

"Hey Enoch" Spyro started "Why is there so much empty space around here?"

"That, I do not know. I think that it's because the man who ruled previously-who was also my ancestor apparently- was a cruel and oppressive tyrant. He only cared about himself and not for his people, so I guess that included having them live in such a small area when there's an ocean of empty space all around it" I explained

"You're not going to end up like him right?"

"Of course not! I may still be young but I still have some common sense in me. Unlike him, I will invest more in the people and less on myself. I'll expand the city and make use of that empty space" I explained

I flew to the armory to put all my gear back where it was, I stripped the bullets from the clips and put them all in their designated crates. The stripper clips go in the crate with the stripper clips, the bullets go in the crate with the bullets and so on. I took off the items from my pattern webbing and put them back in place. After I was finished I flew back to the house and decided to have a quick shower to get the dirt and blood off of me from the battle, After showering I went to my room and took a nap. As I slept I had a dream, I saw Carlos regathering his army of dragon slayers and saw glimpses of firearms, swords and maces covered in blood. Screams of horror and death echoed around me. I heard a faint whisper that sounded a lot like Aquarius saying "Enoch... You must prepare yourself..." everything faded into black and I woke up to Jane shaking me

"Enoch wake up! You're having a nightmare!" Exclaimed Jane with concern

"I was?... and why does everyone insist on barging through my door?" I yawned

"Well sorry but you don't have a lock on your door and you kept shouting 'Aquarius'. I could only assume that you were having a bad dream"

I quickly got up and got out of bed; I went to the balcony and looked at the city, Jane followed me

"It's beautiful" I commented

Jane gave me a confused look

"The city" I clarified "And I bet it would look even better with more people living in it" I thought out loud

We spent what felt around five minutes gazing at the city of New Warfang

"Um.. am I interrupting something?" I heard Maria's voice from behind us

I looked to my right and saw my right arm wrapped around Jane, I must've done it without thinking. In a slight panic I pulled my arm and placed it to my side

"None at all!" I exclaimed. Both Jane and I were blushing; it was interesting hat Jane didn't resist when I hugged her, had she enjoyed it or simply was too focused on the city to notice

"... ok then..."started Maria "Well dinner is almost finished. Come down when you're ready" she said as she supposedly went down. I turned around and headed toward the dining room, the aroma of chicken sucker punched my nose. The day ended and I had the formerly enslaved dragons gather around me in front of the mansion

"Who has plans to stay here?"

I saw 150 dragon wings rise from the crowd

"Might I remind you that other humans might live here" I expected to see most of the wings go down but in fact, I saw even more wings rise "Alright, you asked for it. All of you who raised your wings, walk forward" 170 dragons came forward and stood, including Spyro and Cynder. "Congratulations, you are now citizens of New Warfang. Enjoy your stay and your new home. You are welcome to go around the city and create your homes, build your dens or live with a relative or trusted friend. It's your choice, sleep wherever you want" The new citizens scattered in all directions "For the rest of you, I shall escort you to Warfang. I expect that the city is somewhat clean, and you can sleep comfortably as the dragons will be watching the city throughout the night so that no slayer invades once more. If something does happen, you can always come to me and I will send the rest of the force to assist" I offered


	16. Chapter 16

While we were out, the dragons guarding Warfang must have done a good job because there were no new blood spatters on the streets, either that or the slayers haven't done a second assault yet. I didn't think it was fair for the dragons to sleep in a place where there were so many reminders of the slayers. While most of the were asleep; I, the soldier dragons and the few others that were still awake took torches and cleaning materials. We worked for the whole night scrubbing blood off the streets walls of the buildings and the wall of Warfang itself. Soon enough it was time for the statues; we grabbed a long rope and slowly but surely pulled down every statue, by the time we finished with everything it was noon. I never ate anything since last night and I was starving!

"Here, eat this" Azureth offered an apple

"Thanks!" I quickly took the fruit and devoured it like a starving animal, it was very sweet, almost like sugar "Where'd you get this?"

"While we were guarding, I decided to go to the cheetah village for supplies. I figured we would be here for a while and they offered some fruit as well"

The "Cheetah" villages weren't made of actual cheetahs but the inhabitants resembled many versions of earthly felines, except that they were bipedal. I suppose the right word for them would be anthropomorphic cats. Some of them would resemble lynxes, leopards and of course... Cheetahs. They had skilled warriors and townsfolk, each in specific areas like blacksmithing, woodworking, weaving and gardening to name a few.

It would be great if there were some people like that in New Warfang, it would attract more attention, people would start to leave their towns and find the giant walled city; next thing you know they're living there. "You think the cheetah villagers would like to live in New Warfang?"

"Maybe.." pondered Azureth "I'm sure chief Prowlus would let some of his people go with you"

I went back home and had the dragons take a break from guarding Warfang. As soon as they came in through the portal I sent the other fifty dragons to guard. Around 6 weeks later and Warfang was populous as before the whole mess, not only dragons lived there but moles as well and even some members of the cheetah clan. There was no longer a need to send 50 dragons to guard Warfang day and night, as the king of Warfang had established a guarding force. New Warfang however wasn't so fortunate... We remained the same population we had and only a few dragons joined our small military, including Spyro and Cynder.

One day, the king of warfang who a was a mole named Astershell invited me to his house. He was the ruler before but he escaped through the catacombs by a trapdoor on his first floor. He came back to Warfang a week after it was reclaimed, according to the other dragons re resided in the cheetah clan village and was escorted to Warfang after he heard that it was liberated. I put on my finest clothing that was made by dragons which was a dark blue buttoned shirt made of wool and black pants also made of wool. I made sure to check that my hair was combed and not messy; after all was said and done, I went out to meet with him. His house looked slightly larger than the rest and far more decorated. The two mole guards who were armed with spears immediately pointed their polearms at me.

"State your name and business!" demanded a guard on the left who was clad in steel plate and chainmail armor

"His majesty, the king has invited me to his house and to speak with me. I am Enoch, the ruler of New Warfang" I stated

The guard's eyes widened "I apologize, we did not realize you would come so soon" he said as they reverted back to position

I accepted their apology and went in, I saw Astershell sitting on his throne wearing royal purple and white robes. I gave a slight bow of the head, Astershell nodded and looked quite pleased "His majesty the king Astershell, why have you summoned me?" I asked in a formal matter

King Astershell arose from his throne "I have summoned you to discuss about our two countries" he started "As you know, the dragon slayers have attacked Warfang before and massacred its inhabitants. However,according to my sources, you led a small army of 100 dragons and fiffe other you humans with two crawling machines with cannons on them and drove the slayers away. Is this true?"

"Yes your majesty. I don't mean any disrespect the the 'crawling machiners with cannons on them are called tanks"

"None taken, thank you for clarifying. I also am deeply grateful for your grand service that you have done to the dragons"

"You are very welcome your majesty, If I may add, I have taken a vow to God that I will defend the dragons no matter what, even if it costs my very life"

"I see... so if you were going to be beheaded but told you would live if you killed a dragon of any age, would you do it?"

"If his majesty means that I would kill a dragon to save my own life, the no. I would rather die than commit such an atrocity"

"I admire your dedication to the dragonkin, you are quite brave"

"I thank his majesty for the compliment"

"Now as you know, ever since you save this land, our city's population trip-led and yours has stayed the same. I would like to help with that."

"In what way your majesty?"

"I will send some of my builders there to build the most extravagant homes you have ever seen, I will then sent more moles who are skilled in each subject. Mathematicians, blacksmiths, woodworkers and weaponsmiths to name a few, I will also have them live there."

My eyes widened "Is his majesty sure? He doesn't have to if he doesn't want to"

"I am sure. I will also make arrangements for Chief Prowlus to meet with you. THink of it as a thank you gift for saving Warfang"

"I humbly thank his majesty for his most generous gift" I head bowed once more "Your majesty, forgive me if I sounds critical but, why are the soldiers armed with weapons like shields and spears? The slayers have superior weaponry and if they attack once more, your forces will be decimated and Warfang will be taken over again"

"What do you suggest I do?"

"Have your soldiers train and fight with firearms"

"What are 'firearms'?

"Firearms are basically handheld versions of cannons, They fire much faster, most of them shoot small pointed lead projectiles usually encased in a metal like copper which is referred to as a full metal jacket. You can also attach a blade to them called a bayonet for close quarter combat"

"Interesting... tomorrow you will come back with all the firearms you can and show them to me, you will also show me how they work"

"Understood your majesty. Is there anything else you would like to talk about?"

"Not at this moment. You may leave now"

I did a final head bow and headed out of his home


	17. Chapter 17

I came back home and told everyone about what I and Astershell discussed. The next day I woke up and I was surprisingly refreshed, that usually doesn't happen at six in the morning! (Since I tend to go to sleep later than most people) No one was in the hallway or living room or any other area so I assumed they were all asleep in their rooms. I didn't dare try to knock on their doors and wake them up as I didn't want to receive a slap to the face or a kick to the groin so I decided to eat fresh Shorktaw berry oatmeal. I proceeded to my morning routine and when I was finished I headed toward the armory, when I finished combing down the refurbished flight of wooden stairs and equipped the loadout I used in the attack. I didn't think that the webbing was necessary but I put it on anyway.

As I walked back I realized that Astershell never gave me a specific time at which I were to come. I figured that he would like me to come around mid day as any regular person would be wide awake at that time (hopefully including moles). I had no idea what to do at that time so I did the very first thing that popped into my head; take a nap. I switched to my dragon form and flew over to the wall as the bright yellow sun just peered out of the vast forest, it's first rays of sunlight felt pleasant on my scales.

I woke up when I felt the sun's heat on my face; I yawned and flew over to the portal platform and to my surprise I saw Spyro and Cynder standing right next to the portal frame.

"It's about time you show up..." complained Cynder

"I don't understand, why are you just standing here?"

"Yesterday Jane told us that King Astershell has requested an audience with you concerning firearms. She asked us if we can escort you while her and her siblings were going out of New Warfang to trade with nearby villages; to which we gladly accepted."

"Why would I need an escort?"

Spyro grinned "Every ruler needs an escort no matter what age or how long He's ruled"

I nodded "Well it's nice to see you two again" I faced the portal "shall we?" they nodded and I went in the portal with them following me. I switched back to my human form and walked towards the home of Astershell. As I neared the guards were curious about my weapons and started to poke at them with their spears when I was in range. "Please stop" I protested "this is very sensitive and delicate equipment" the moles looked at me strangely but stopped

"What is your business with the king?" A guard on the right asked

"His majesty, the king Astershell has requested a second audience with me, these two dragons are escorting me"

The guards let the three of us in where Astershell was sitting on his throne, waiting for us. Spyro and I bowed while Cynder did what looked like a curtsy-like gesture by unfolding her wings and bowing her head "Greetings you three, please sit and have some tea. It calms the mind" he offered. We sat down while his servants came out of the kitchen with silver plates and ceramic tea cups with a white ceramic tea kettle with images of red and blue flowers. I took a sip of the herbal tea and sighed in relaxation, I took more and more sips that before I knew it all I was drinking was air. Astershell and the dragons were looking at me weirdly, I blushed in embarrassment and put down the cup on the small plate "I was... really thirsty" I then remembered what I came about "You're majesty here are two of the many firearms I have at my disposal in the armory. Take a look" I stood up and placed the rifles in between us and Astershell, I sat back down again.

"They are very long. It seems that they are primarily made of wood and a type of metal like iron. They are very interesting but why are they shaped differently?" Asked Astershell

"It is because of the ammunition type and how you reload it" I started "Judging by what you said, you may have noticed that they have different parts. Am I correct?"

Astershell nodded with a resounding "mhmm"

"The one that is in front of you is called a 'Bolt action rifle' the reason is called that way is because it has a piece of metal sticking out the side which is part of the bolt. The way you load and fire is by pulling the bolt back by that piece of metal and putting ammunition inside inside the slot that'll open up, push the piece forward which will push the ammo into the firing chamber. After that, all you need to pull back is a curved piece of metal under the rifle and it will propel what's called 'bullet' forward and out of the barrel, damaging or injuring whatever is in front of it. The one behind it is another rifle but this is called a 'muzzle loader' because you have to load ammunition through the mouth of the rifle also known as a muzzle. Similar to a canon, you have to pour down black powder, use what's called a ram rod to pack down the powder. You then take a fatter and shorter piece of ammunition called a minié ball, place it on the muzzle and push it did with the ram rod to the bottom. After that you bring backwards a piece of metal sticking from the top halfway, then you place a small item called a percussion cap on a small peg, you fully bring the metal backwards and pull the trigger." I explained there's was much more to the rifle than shooting it though; a rifle needs to be taken care of, cleaned to remove any debris caused by firing it or dust and mud that could clog up any internals; making it useless or potentially dangerous upon firing. I explained how the rifles and firearms have to be treated and have to be taken care of to Astershell who listened to every word I had to say, he didn't even take a sip of his tea until I finished speaking which was cold by then. Astershell took a sip of his now cold tea, he had a disgusted look on his face; he clapped two times and servants replaced his cup of tea with a much hotter one.

"I would like to see how these 'rifles' are used"

"Of course your majesty, there is a small problem however"

"Oh?"

"Rifles are not meant to be fired on the inside of buildings. They create a very loud sound and some use black powder which can create a lot of smoke after firing and when I say they damage things they really damage things"

"Understood. We can go outside and go to the field my archers train at, will their targets suffice?"

"Yes your majesty. As long as it's not inside and the targets aren't live dragons or moles"

"Of course not. I'm a king, not a barbarian"

We departed the house shortly after the king finished his tea. As we walked toward the field we talked about how things are going in New Warfang and how Spyro and Cynder are enjoying their new lives. They both gave positive feedback which made me feel more secure as I didn't want to lose them again. I told Astershell that all things were fine, they could have been better but everything has been good. There were no fights, everyone seemed to follow the law and that the community garden put there by John and the rest was had a few pests like caterpillars munching on some of the plant's leaves but nothing too serious. The berry bushes were giving berries, some fruit trees grew exceptionally fast and started to bear fruit, some other plants were starting to grow vegetables like carrots and cauliflower and more. Astershell was impressed that I was able to produce so much in such few months.

"You amaze me Enoch" complimented Astershell

We arrived to a large field of dirt and gravel with archers still training and landed close to perfect bull's eyes. Astershell had the archers pick up their warbows, their arrows and headed home, they had a large smile on their faces after Astershell sent them away. I'm assuming Astershell has his soldiers train extremely hard so they can be the best they can be, even so; everyone needs a break every now and then. "There are a few rules to firearm safety. The first one is do not point at anything you intend to shoot, the slightest touch could make it misfire and you'll shoot what is at the opposite end of the barrel. The second one ties in with the first one, do not look down the barrel even if you have safety for the reasons I explained before. The third one is to treat your firearm as if it's loaded, even if it isn't; which is to say don't aim your rifle at anyone even if it doesn't have any ammo in it." I explained. I took the 1903 and loaded 5 rounds via stripper clip, took my shooting stance and aimed at the target "Cover your ears!" I warned as I fired five consecutive shots which were all close, if not perfect bull's eyes. Astershell was amazed

"Thanks for the warning, but how did you learn to shoot so well?" He asked

"I taught myself when I go to the shooting range. I guess the direction the wind is blowing, how strong the wind is, I estimate the bullet drop and take my shot; or shots in this case" I explained

I placed the 1903 on the ground and grabbed the 1863 and initiated the long loading process. I finally finished a minute later, took aim and pulled the trigger which hit dead center in the target. I looked to the king and dragons who were blocking their ears wincing in pain.

"My most sincerest apologies your majesty! I forgot to give a warning!"

"It's alright! Just try to remember the next time" Warned Astershell "Anyway... that's how you use firearms?"

"Yes your majesty, however these are just a few of the guns we have. We have many more that can benefit your army, out of these two however, I recommend the bolt action; they're much faster ave easier to reload and you also won't be surrounded by a cloud of black smoke after you fire. Issue them some sort of ear protection unless you want them to go deaf. Hardened beeswax is a good one, I've been using it and it blocks out most of the sounds."

Astershell nodded "So compared to firearms our weapons are obsolete I assume"

"I wouldn't say that, you can keep using weapons you already use, you can just make smaller and compact versions of them, maybe you could shorten them and use them as bayonets or just use them along with your riflemen. I wise and excellent soldier once said 'An officer is never fully dressed without his sword' I'm pretty sure that also includes regular infantry." After I said that I took out the bayonet and showed how to put it on the rifle which is very simple.

After all was said and done we headed back to the catacombs but not before settling a trade agreement. I agreed that I would give Astershell's army firearms and teach how to use them. Astershell told me he'll arrange a meeting with chief prowlus and talk to him about having him send farmers and Warriors to New Warfang.

"Uh Spyro and Cynder may I have a word with you two?" Requested Astershell

Spyro and Cynder turned to look at him, so did I. "Take no offense to this Enoch but I would like to talk to them privately" I nodded and stood back. They walked around seventy five feet away from me and Astershell started talking, they both looked disappointed and shook their heads Spyro said something that I couldn't heard; Astershell sighed and put his head down. They walked back to me right after and it was time for Astershell to be disappointed "Okay, everything has been settled. You may go now."

We bowed and went through the portal "Spyro what was Astershell talking about? Whatever he said you didn't seem too happy about it"

Spyro sighed "While Astershell supports you, he doesn't believe your kingdom will last long because he thinks your too young to rule a land. He wanted to recruit us into the dragon part of his army and we declined his offer. I said that while you still have a lot to learn, you have done great things so far and show promise. We want to stay with you and see this land become great"

Cynder nodded "We want to stick with you until the very end"

I smiled "Thanks you guys, I appreciate it. You know, on Earth there was a person named Charles XII or Carolus Rex. He ruled a country called Sweden when he was only 15 and many also thought he was too inexperienced because he was so young. Something his enemies didn't expect it but he lead his men to many victories and crushed most of his opponents. I think I'm a lot like him. Who knows? Maybe we're related." I chuckled


	18. Chapter 18

I was overjoyed to see Jane and very happy to see the rest as the gate opened by sunset. They came with more livestock, some seeds for planting, even pots with already growing small trees and bushes with berries on them. They told the villagers about the city and according to them, some of their people were already packing their bags assumably to come over here. The next day I started to pack some firearms in the crates, there were much more than I thought; which was maybe around one hundred but there were over one thousand! I packed four large crates; each carrying the ammo the firearms used and the firearms themselves, one carrying rifles, another carrying sidearms like pistols and revolvers, another carrying ,machine guns, and another carrying explosives like grenades which were carefully placed into smaller boxes with hay inside to avoid it going off inside the crate. I brought them to Astershell and he had his army gather around me in the training field; his army was pretty large which consisted of dragons, moles and even members of the Cheetah tribe; in all there were at least ten thousand. As I agreed I taught them all how to use each firearm, how to clean them and most importantly the safety rules. Astershell sent his messengers to the Cheetah tribe to send for Chief Prowlus just as he promised so everything was in order. I came back exhausted from a day of teaching Astershell's soldiers I saw moles fast and hard at work on building homes that could have been mistaken for small palaces; and I thought my mansion was beautiful! A few days later Astehsell requested that I meet with him in his home because a special guest was with him. I immediately put on my best clothing and went to see Astershell and that special guest which was Chief Prowlus sitting on a royal purple pillow made of fine silk. I'll spare you the details but in a short summary we discussed why Chief Prowlus wanted me to give him some of his farmers and warriors; I told him about my situation and requested that he would give me some of his best, if not; second best. Prowlus wanted something in return but it wasn't weapons. At the end of each harvest, he will be given twenty five percent of all the crops that we raised and that I would keep the rest of the seventy five percent; it sounded fair so I agreed and he told me that he'll send his best farmers and warriors as soon as possible. I think this was already established but I already had an alliance with Warfang and on that day an alliance was established with the Chief Prowlus and the Cheetah tribe.

Two days later Prowlus kept his end of the bargain and about two hundred cheetah tribe members which consisted of one hundred farmers and one hundred warriors. Months passed and New Warfang was prospering from neighboring villages, from Warfang and the Cheetah tribe; new dragons and moles started to move to New Warfang, each month fifty more members from the cheetah tribe came and resided there. Letters from Astershell came constantly that talked about Warfang's status, his men were regularly using firearms along with their previous weapons and there were no more massacres of any dragons or tribes and everything was going good. The lands were at peace and many villagers joined the military and took on other side jobs like blacksmithing, farming, building and so on. Every soldier took a vow and a pledge to God that they will defend the dragons, New Warfang and the land that they were based on which I named _Unitatis terra_ which is _Land of Unity_ in English. The military of Unitatis terra was named _The Skyforce_ because the first soldiers were just one hundred dragons and a few humans including myself. The Skyforce stood for the freedom of dragons and across all of Unitatis terra, even if it meant shedding blood. During those months I noticed that I was not only born to rule but I was an excellent drill sergeant also, I kept my men in check; morale and discipline united them and they had a common faith to keep them strong. They were dead accurate in training missions but they were never truly battle tested at that point as there was peace throughout the land... or so I thought. I modeled The Skyforce after the Swedish Caroleans who fought under the Swedish kings Charles XI and Charles XII, but unlike the Caroleans: The Skyforce had more than one thousand men including cheetah tribe members and dragons. The moles I received from Astershell were working harder and harder on building massive buildings other than homes, they built workshops for woodworking, smelteries, infrastructure, restaurants buildings that were requested by other citizens and even worked on new military buildings like barracks, mess hall, refurbished and revised the armory and even built a new one with easier access to name a few. I developed a paper monetary system called "talons" that was very similar to the US dollar system along with coins that were just referred to as cents. There were one, two, ten, twenty, fifty, one hundred talon bills; however if the proper amount couldn't be paid then a trade could also be made.

One day Spyro and Cynder came to me as I was laying down and relaxing on the wall as I always did in my spare time. They said that it was finally time for them to get married, I asked them if they were sure

"Enoch, listen" started Cynder "We have been an unmarried couple for years and we know each other very well. We're not going to get divorced in a long time or maybe never at all, when a dragon marries the rule is 'till death do us part' and sometimes even if a mate dies the remaining dragon may take years to marry again or not at all"

I nodded "When would you like the ceremony?"

They both looked at each other "In two days" they said in unison

"Then it is so, I'll inform the pastor at your local church and in two days you will be a married couple"

They gratefully thanked me and flew back to their palace sized home. In two days flew by and the next thing I knew I was sitting in the very front pew with a light blue suit on, the ceremony was very similar to the one in Warfang before it was attacked except in this one there were no interruptions and for an extra precaution I had two soldiers stand guard at the front of the church with rifles that carried rubber bullets and a sidearm that carried lethal rounds if the situation called for it. The ceremony went with no interruptions of any kind, when the pastor finally pronounced them as mates Spyro and Cynder had the widest smiles on their faces and embraced and nuzzled each other for what felt like hours. Unfortunately I forgot to bring a wedding gift and felt bad about it while everyone else brought one but they didn't care and said that me authorizing the wedding was the best gift of all.

I thought the dragon slayers were history but those "dreams" kept continuing no matter what I did, I tried medicines, assortments of both bitter and sweet teas but nothing, in fact I think it made them stronger. Only five days later, a giant boulder hit the wall that protected New Warfang, I immediately ran over to the where it hit to assess the damage it caused the its origin, when I looked forward I saw a large mass heading toward us around five hundred miles across from us, I turned to my dragon form to take a closer look and noticed that it was an army of dragon slayers which I distinguished because of the patch on the right side of their chest that had two intersecting swords with the blades covered in crimson red blood and armed with modern firearms of all sorts including rockets. I sounded the alarm and went to the armory to gear up.


	19. Chapter 19

The civilians were to be evacuated into the large underground bunkers we had which were shaped in a rectangle with the sides -measuring two hundred by one hundred fifty square feet- just in case the Skyforce failed. There were also at least fifty of the Skyforce along with the civilians just in case things got out of hand in there.

Riflemen equipped either a 1903 Springfield or a Short Magazine Lee Enfield (SMLE for short) mark III; snipers were given the same rifles except that they had high powered scopes and a bipod. Light machine gunners were given a BAR or a Lewis gun, regular machine gunners were trained to use the Vickers water cooled machine gun; this meant that not only were they trained to shoot and kill their target but also keep the barrel cooled by a large can of water so: A. The barrel doesn't warp or melt, B. damage the rifling, C. "cook off" the rounds, meaning that the gun would fire even without pulling the trigger until it's empty or D. all three. All the human soldiers were equipped with the following melee weapons: an arming sword or dagger, a trench knife and a bayonet. The dragon soldiers relied on their claws, tail guard and breath weapons, however they could grab a sword or spear fitted to their size if they chose to use one. Those of the cheetah tribe were mostly outfitted with you their old load out which consisted of a war bow, arrows and a dagger or short sword, if not then they were to switch to our load outs. MG nests were placed around the gates of the walls just in case the slayers were to get through our first line of defense. "Everyone!" I started "This is the moment we've trained for. It's time to show these dragonslaying scumbags what we're made of. There will be no retreat and no surrender. Defend the dragons and the city with your very lives!"

I set up the machine gunners and took the rest upon the walls' walkway; lining them up in the process in the order of five humans, five cheetah members, one dragon and the sequence repeated. The slayers were even closer this time; we shouted our battle cry "Gott mit uns!" (Which was German for "God with us") but the slayers remained unphased and kept on the march. A massive volley of arrows was fired from the cheetahs which inflicted major casualties on the slayer side to which had them halt and fire on us. The dragons unfolded their wings to act as cover for the infantry, as added protection for the dragons they had a draconic version of what looked like lorica segmentada; a type of plated armor that the Romans used. Their barrage was over after thirty seconds and we returned fire with three consecutive volleys of rifle fire and ordered all to fire at will, for weapons that were about a hundred years old they served their purpose quite well. What seemed like hundreds of slayer bodies hit the ground only within five minutes. When a majority of the force was gone I pulled a somewhat risky move: I had the dragons move from their positions and scout the rest of the battlefield which would decrease our cover drastically as the walls weren't very good cover if our heads were poking out the top. As soon as the dragons left a barrage of LMG fire headed straight for us "Get down!" I ordered; all infantry either went prone or crouched and continued to fire. I ordered something I should have done before "Fire a mortar strike!" I barked. The field artillery was quickly set up and shells were launched, their forces were destroyed quickly.

"How many casualties did we receive?" I asked

"We had a total of ten casualties Enoch" Informed John

"Not too many then..."

The dragons came back with scratched and dented armor but still very much alive thirty seconds later.

"Enoch, there seems to be two more battalions advancing through the forest and what seems like artillery way back in their lines" informed Spyro

"Did you see what exactly they had with these battalions?"

"No, we were being shot at so we couldn't take a good look"

I nodded "Good job. Take your positions once more"

Spyro and the rest took their defensive positions and I had the medics take care of the wounded. What felt like ten minutes later we heard loud marching and before we could react something hit us with an impact so great that it made the wall tremble which caused some of my men to fall to their deaths. I saw five armored vehicles which consisted of what looked like an LAV-25, three M2 Bradley's and one IAV Stryker, followed by dragonslayers armed with rocket launchers, followed by riflemen which was then followed by machine gunners.

"Think carefully Enoch. Those armored vehicles could be useful for us, we only have a few jeeps and two small tanks which are pretty slow." Said John

I nodded "But how are we going to get a hold of them without casualties or destroying the vehicles?"

"I can't guarantee no casualties but what we can do is throw down mustard gas and smoke grenades. The slayers in the vehicle won't be able to see us and they don't have gas masks. They'll be on contact with the sweet smelling gas and be distracted by it's side effects like the feeling of their eyes burning; when they're all incapacitated we'll strike."

"Good idea, but what if the vehicles have night vision and they do have gas masks?"

"I guess we'll see what happens..."

I nodded "All units!" I started "Equip your masks and throw down your gas and smoke grenades. I repeat: Equip your gas masks and throw down your gas and smoke grenades!" All put on their masks and did as I said. In a few seconds the area on front of us was covered in a cloud of smoke and gas, there was just one problem I didn't account for... we couldn't see the enemy just as they (hopefully) couldn't see us. "Draw your blades, we'll take this into a close quarter battle." I ordered as I drew my arming sword and mounted Spyro. When everyone was on a dragon they flew us down and we dismounted; as John assumed the slayers didn't have a gas mask on and were too distracted to notice us. We quickly dispatched the footmen and hid in the shrubbery of the forest, the drivers and the others that were with them to see what happened. We ambushed them and took them down with ease, no casualties just a few injured.

"Spyro, have some of your dragons fly these to the vehicle station. We'll keep moving to intercept the third battalion and take out the artillerymen."

Spyro nodded and had Azureth, Tikal, Sarah and two other dragons move the vehicles. I was about to give the order until artillery pounded the land eliminating all surviving trees to less than stumps and inflicted more than a few casualties. The barrage lasted for around a minute and I found myself facing the sky in a small crater, I got up and felt pain all over. I immediately reached into my crystal sack to my side and shattered a red crystal, healing all the wounds I possibly had and the pain went away quickly. I got out of the hole and looked around me to see most of my men alive but injured or dead on the ground. Those who were alive slowly rose from the ground including the siblings "Anyone who can still fight come with me, those who are too injured stay and a medic will come to get you." I ordered, around seventy five percent of the men I took with me got in formation, including the siblings, cheetah members and dragons. We marched until we heard the marching of the enemy "Dragons take your defensive positions, riflemen, put on your bayonets, archers, equip your bladed weapons. The dragons will spread their wings and attempt to surround the enemy, if not then they will partly surround them and eliminate all the foes in front of them. Once they've taken down a majority of the enemy the dragons will fold their wings, that's when we will bayonet rush them and engage in close quarter combat. Be sure to break your red crystals continuously so that the dragons will be healed constantly." I commanded. The dragons unfolded their wings and when I saw the tip of their heads from the hill they were on I initiated the dragon charge and the plan proceeded as planned. We were at a small disadvantage as we were downhill and we were a bit slow running and keeping the formation but we only suffered a few casualties. When the slayers met with the dragons they were greeted with a flurry of stone, electricity, ice, fire, magma, and clawing attacks; quickly decimating their forces. In around thirty minutes we quickly surrounded them with no dragon casualty, when the slayers were small in numbers the dragons unfolded their wings and we greeted them with a bayonet and dagger to the face and spared no mercy. Their third battalion was quickly eliminated and we moved on through an opening which revealed an open meadow so our only cover were the wings of the dragons. We slowly marched through the meadow and found their artillery and a trench filled with slayers and machine guns ten miles away from us. There weren't many compared to the battalion so we rushed the enemy with the dragons spreading their wings to act as shields. The slayers fired upon us but thankfully most of the dragon's wings held up... some of the bullets went through the gaps of the armor and into their wings which creating holes in them and killing anyone who was greeted with the high caliber rounds. We pointed our bayonets forward and as we got close enough the dragons removed their wings from in front of us and jammed our blades into the slayer's necks, some missed but managed to finish the job with a buttstock to the face; making them fall on their backs and finishing the job with by thrusting their bayonet or swords into them. There were no dragon slayer survivors

"How many did we lose?" I asked

"I'm not sure but I want to say at least two hundred humans, one hundred and fifty cheetah and five dragons" answered John

I sat down on the grass and took off my helmet "I knew we were going to have casualties but I didn't think we would have that many..." We had over a thousand soldiers that's true but I didn't like receiving casualties, even if it was just one; I treated all of my men as if they were my own children.

"At least we know they're battle ready" he comforted

I shot a green flair to signify to the ones protecting the wall that the battle was won and for the dragons to come pick up the artillery guns. We marched back to New Warfang, proud of our victory but at the same time sad about the losses. There were a bit more than John predicted but it was still a large amount so it was a long burial service and some of us were still covered in dragon slayer blood which was now dry. After a long day it was more than satisfying to take a hot shower, it looked like Jane already got home before me as she was sitting on the couch. I decided to take a seat next her but she turned her head and noticed me; she gestured to an empty seat next to her to which I gladly accepted.

"Hey Enoch?" she started

"Yeah?"

"Thanks for saving me, I really appreciated that"

"Well I couldn't let anymore of my comrades die, especially you"

When we fought the second battalion I did my best to keep my eyes on her so that if she got hurt I could have someone tend to her injuries but when I got them off her, she got out of formation she was in immediate danger as she was surrounded; I was forced to step out and parry away a slayer's sword and kill the target; putting myself in danger. Eventually she got back in formation to which I responded by going back as well.

"Why 'especially' me?" she asked giving a slight smile

I was nervous, blushing and stuttered through my "words" which I couldn't formulate and came out more as sounds.

Jane chuckled "Let me ask a you a better question... do you like me?"

I regained my composure and nervously asked "In what context?"

"As in... do you love me? In a girlfriend kind of way?"

And... there goes my composure again! Once more I stuttered and do what an _obviously_ sane person would do in a situation: slap myself, which surprisingly worked. I took a deep breath and one word popped out of my mouth "yes" and there was silence. Jane had her eyes wide open and her hands cupped over her mouth; I thought she was going to reject my feelings because of my low self esteem but it was actually quite the opposite. She launched at me and gave the tightest hug I ever had, I thought she almost popped my arms out of their sockets

"I like you too" she said with confidence

I think it was official by then but I had to make sure "Jane..." I started "Will you be my girlfriend?" she hugged me even tighter

"Yes!" she burst "And we'll get married someday and ruled Unitatis Terra together"

I smiled "I like the sounds of that"

The rest showed up thirty minutes later and we decided to keep our relationship a secret to avoid any unnecessary conflict.

The next day I should have done the day before, burn the dragonslayer bodies and take their equipment, which we did and started to learn how to use the Steyr AUG and other modern firearms, I of course knew how to use them but the rest didn't so it was up to me to teach them how. Unfortunately we only had a limited amount of ammo and rifles so we had go back to our old bolt actions until we had sufficient materials.


	20. Chapter 20

Days later the elemental guardians flew to New Warfang with so many injuries their scales were more crimson than anything. "Cyrill, what's wrong?" I asked

"Enoch, it's them! They attacked us out of nowhere in the middle of the night!" blurted Cyrill

Jane-Who was with me- cocked her head to the side and raised her eyebrows "Cyrill slow down! Your not making any sense, who attacked you?"

"The dragonslayers of course!"

Ever since the first dream of the dragonslayers I kept having the same one over and over again but I ignored it; thinking it was PTSD from seeing Aquarius die in front of my eyes. After the attack of the dragonslayers on New Warfang I tried to ignore them during the day but the dream kept lingering in my mind the entire day, I can't just ignore these things especially in these times. "What exactly happened?" I queried

"We were in out temple- it was built in the time of Infernicus by his workers- sleeping away the night until we heard battle cries and explosions. We immediately fort up to see what was with all the noise and at first we felt hard thumps against our scales, then cracks and then constant pain. Our eyes had to adjust to the darkness but as soon as they adjusted we saw the dragonslayers all around us either shooting us with what you refer to as 'firearms' or macing us in our legs; some were even attempting to get on top of us with some launchable hook. We started to kill as many slayers as possible but they were too great in numbers and overwhelmed us; we had no choice but to fly away and get to New Warfang. As you can clearly see we escaped with our lives."

As I looked closer I saw many bullet holes and injuries caused by the spiked maces I guess they plan on staying in this land...I thought. Unfortunately I didn't have any red crystals on me, nor did Jane when she searched her pockets; however some civilians did have a few on them and kindly gave to the guardians to which they graciously accepted and shattered. "Would you like a new dragon temple to be build in New Warfang?" I offered

"No, no, no. It's alright; we would hate to be a burden; a temple would require much materials and you don't have that much compared to Warfang" admitted Volteer

"Nonsense" Started Jane "Spyro and Cynder told me what you did in your younger days. You protected them both when they were hatchlings, and were originally given the task of guarding dragon eggs. Granted you did fail one time but two eggs survived at least, even if one hatchling was corrupted as soon as she hatched" (she meant Cynder) "You should be honored citizens and given everything you want or need" she ended to which I nodded

"Well... if you insist I suppose we could stay here" accepted Terrador

"Where would you like your temple to be built?" I asked

"Perhaps an area that's secluded but not too far away from civilization and within the walls as well"

"Got it, I'll get the information to my builders as soon as possible... by the way; where is your temple located? The one that got overrun by slayers?"

"It's about North-east from here, about a day and nights journey from here on foot, maybe eight hours by flight" said Cyrill

That last part surprised me, they managed to fly for hours while critically wounded; the guardians are strong indeed. "Alright, you're free to walk around the city and see what's new if you want" I offered; to which they nodded and started to walk away.

"Why did you ask them for their temple location?" Asked Jane

"The slayers may have left their supplies, they may have even built a camp there. If I send a few platoons and employ guerrilla tactics, we can reclaim the temple and take their equipment as ours. If we successfully reclaim it without much damage, we can restore the guardians their temple if they still want it that is; if not we can use it as a base"

"Do you think they'll be expecting them?"

"I...hope so. I'm just hoping that they lose interest and leave or that they let their guard down when we arrive"

"We? What do you mean 'we'?" asked Jane

"Well, I mean I'm going with the platoons"

"But you can get killed!"

"You didn't say anything when I planned on reclaiming Warfang"

Jane was silent

"I could have easily died there too: there were many factors that could have lead to my death like a stray bullet or a grenade landing near me and exploding and other things"

Jane sighed "Fine, just make me a promise: You won't die. You have a kingdom to rule and a future queen waiting for you"

"I won't die, I promise. Also I never said I was going to go now, I need to know how many rations I'll need to give to keep the soldiers fed and so on"

Jane nodded and we continued back to the house

"So... How was your date?" asked John as we walked in

Both of us were flustered "W-what are you talking about?" Asked a blushing Jane

"C'mon, it's obvious you two have a thing for each other. You're spending a lot of time with each other, holding hands and a few times one of us catches you two making out." Started John "You two lighter lovebirds may want to keep it to a low; who knows what Maria would do"

Jane was even more confused "What does Maria have anything to do with us?"

"You haven't told her yet?" Asked John

I shook my head.

"Tell me what?" She persisted and her eyes widened "Enoch. You better not be cheating on me with my sister because of you are I swear I'll!-"

"NO!." I cleared my throat "no, I am not in a romantic relationship with your sister; in fact that's the last thing I want"

"Explain. Now" she ordered

"Maria has a crush on me" I admitted

"What? Since when!?"

I was about to answer but John beat me to it "If I'm correct; a few days later after meeting you. When I saw her talk to you her eyes seemed too dilate, she stutters and moves in an... interesting way..."

"Now that I think of it..." I started "That does seem to match the description of her actions when talking to me, dilating eyes, a few stutters here and there and seductive movements to possibly attract me to her. At times she also got way too close for comfort" I explained.

"Someone has to tell her that your not into her" said Jake as he was ascending from the stairs "I was taking a nap until I heard a loud 'No' and eavesdropped ever since"

I sighed a frustrated sigh and plopped on the couch "but who's gonna tell her?"

"We'll both tell her, she has to accept that we're together" sated Jane

"I think she already knows" said Styx who was on the second floor looking down at us

"Brother" Started Jake "Have you been eavesdropping too?"

"... Maybe, but that's not important. What's important is that Maria probably already knows. One day she told me that she spotted you two going to first base -if you know what I mean- on the couch followed by the word 'skank' and other awful words"

Jane was shocked "If she knew then why didn't she confront me about it?" She asked

"Well how should I know? I'm not a mind reader or anything like that. I can only assume that she's in denial or she's planning something"

"Where is she?" I asked

"Am I my sister's keeper?" He sighed "she's probably tending to the crops or something; I don't know"

"In suppose we'll wait for her here then" said Jane as she sat next to me

During the pass of thirty minutes the everyone retreated into their rooms except Jane; I was about to pay a visit to dreamland until I heard a click and the sound of the door being opened; Maria had arrived.

"Oh, uh hello you two... how was your day" Asked Maria

"Maria, we need to talk." Stated Jane

"Um o-okay. What's on your mind sis?" She asked again

"A little birdy told me you know about us"

Maria's eyes widened a bit "What do you mean?"

"You know what I mean" she answered "You spotted us kissing at least one time and called me some things that aren't very nice"

At this point Maria was balling her hands into fists "Maybe I did. Maybe I didn't; so what?" She shot

I was a bit tired of Jane beating around the bush so I stepped in "Let's cut to the chase" I started "Maria, I know you like me but I'm sorry to say I don't feel the same about you. Whether you want to believe this or not; I am dating your sister, and nothing will change that or how I feel about her" As the final word left my mouth I heard a second door open and felt something break; I looked into Maria's eyes and they felt like daggers made up of anger, sadness, hatred and jealousy. I heard a faint "Watch out!" In my head and Maria started to scream like a banshee.

"No you're not! You're lying!" She screamed.

"It's true." Confirmed Jane "Enoch and I are together"

"This always happens... all the guys flock towards you no matter where we are, whether it be were in another village or our own and I get no one. I'm sick of it!" She screeched as she drew a pocket knife and rushed at Jane. I sprung into action and grabbed Maria's knife hand which was just inches away from Jane's jugular.

"We don't draw weapons on our comrades! Regardless of how you feel about them" I stated as I pushed her hand away; loosening my grip.

Maria growled and in a blind rage she pulled her hand out of mine and proceeded to stab me repeatedly into my chest and finally plunged the blade into my chest; I fell to my knees and stupidly took the knife out which only made the bleeding worse. I saw John grab Maria and pin her into a wall with a loud thump followed by yelling and what I thought was faint crying; all muffled though. "Red... crystal..." I said which only came out as a whisper "Red... crystal!" I shouted. Jane immediately scrambled around the house; desperately trying to find a red crystal. After what felt like an hour of pain and anguish Jane finally handed me what I needed; to which I shattered and was healed. The muffled sounds were now clear and all I heard was John shouting angry words at a now crying Maria which was also accompanied by curse words. As I stood up I felt a tight hug from Jane and slightly warm wet objects falling on the back of my neck to which I hugged back. I finished and ordered "Put Maria in her room"

"But Enoch! She almost killed you! You're just going to let that pass!?" Shouted John

"Yes. Leave her alone, quit screaming at her, take her to her room and close the door afterwards"

John sighed "As you wish..." and slung Maria over his arm, careful not to hurt her and followed orders.

"Why did you show her mercy?" Asked Jane, a bit irritated

"To be honest: I don't know. I could have had her arrested but that was the first thing that popped into my head and out of my mouth" I answered "Now if you'll excuse me, I need to figure out how much food and water I'll have to assign to my soldiers for the mission" I said as I went to the bathroom to take a shower.

The next day I organized four platoons, each with fifty soldiers who were lead by the Lieutenant colonels Spyro, Cynder, John and the general slash portalmaster: Me. All of those who fought to liberate Warfang were immediately highly promoted to ranks like first and second lieutenants, majors, colonels and so on after the battle was won. Others came along as well like first lieutenant Azureth, Major Brutus, and newly demoted... second lieutenant Maria... let me explain! I asked the siblings if any of them would join me and all but one declined which was Maria who apologized profusely about what happened last night and kept bothering me about going so eventually I did allow her after a quick demotion; when John heard about this he immediately changed his mind and agreed that he would come with me. Understood? Yes? Okay let's continue. Each soldier was still equipped with the standard issue bolt action rifle, bayonet but they were also given a sidearm which was a 1911 which was easily copied by the gunsmiths and so was their ammunition. Their armor consisted of the previous dragonslayer's Kevlar and tactical vests (which was also replicated and manufactured) except that there were major changes like the previous patch with two swords was replaced with an image of a dragon with scales of the colors that represented unity, the Kevlar and vest itself was dyed brown and dark green to match the forest's natural main colors and not the slayer's dark red.

We got in a marching formation, I gave the order to open the gates and we marched into the unforgiving, vast forest.

Author's note: From Chapter 1 to this point I have been copying and pasting from other documents that have been laying around but after this, publishing will be a bit slow because of my process. First I write by hand all the chapters for my rough draft; after that I copy and paste from paper to a google docs; then I copy and paste from that document into a shared document and from there I copy and paste into other sites like to here, Wattpad and . So again, I want to warn you that after this there may be a delay in chapters. Thanks for reading and stay tuned for more chapters of The Blue Blaze: Defender of Dragons. If you have any questions; feel free to drop them in the comments and I will answer them to the best of my ability.


	21. Chapter 21

Chapter 21

With every step we took, we got closer to the temple. I worried about my men, if I brought enough soldiers and equipped them with enough firepower. The slayers had modern weapons on their side and could obliterate us if we made the smallest mistake. We had a few advantages however: assuming that the slayers haven't been on Unitatis Terra very long we would have the terrain on our side as we knew it better, camouflage to help us blend in with the forest, and of course the mighty dragons who also had camouflaged armor.

"So what does this temple look like again?" Asked Azureth who was in my platoon.

"The temple is made up of mostly pure gold, it's sectioned off into circular rooms in the inside with one main large one in the center. There is a large dome for the center room with an equally large balcony on the back. On the inside there is also a large statue of a dragon. Assuming that it looks the same as the temple in the dragon realms" I answered

"You seem to know a lot about it, how?" He asked

"Before the dragonslayer invasion Spyro and Cynder took me to the temple so that I may meet with the rest of the guardians. They gave me a big welcome and invited us to stay for the rest of the day with them and we accepted. Volteer gave us a tour of the whole place which felt incredibly long with his love for synonyms. During the tour Terrador must've looked into the pool of visions just as Aquarius did when the couple brought me to him. Which would explain why Terrador gave me a slightly weird look; not of anger but a surprised one. I'm assuming he told the rest of the guardians after we left because that would explain how Cyrill recognized me on the day of the invasion when I was in my human form." I explained

"Do you think that Aquarius could have contacted Terrador somehow? Maybe he told him about you which would explain why Terrador didn't attack you or give you a face of hatred"

"Maybe… Aquarius was an interesting dragon" I inferred "Anyway, for obvious reasons we can't let our guard down, they almost killed the guardians and they're like the best of the best. Expect Machine gun nests around the entrance and maybe on the inside. As we'll be going inside a building expect rifles, shotguns and other weapons that can be used in close quarters effectively." I explained

We stopped around thirty minutes later to give everyone a small five minute break; I can't have my men collapse of exhaustion now can I?... Unfortunately that also meant Maria As well… I was air l about to talk to Spyro and Cynder but Maria got to me first.

"Hey Enoch!" She called out

"Y-yeah?"

Maria started walking towards me "I just wanted to say sorry again for what happened yesterday… I don't know what got into me. I also wanted to tell you that I'm fine with you dating my sister and thank you that you didn't do any too bad to me in response. Do they still hurt?"

"Not anymore, thanks for asking"

"Also, if you saw a much prettier girl than Jane would you leave her and immediately date the other girl?"

I started to get defensive, I thought she was going to try something. "No! Of course not!" I shouted

"Okay, okay; no need to shout. You're a good guy, my sister is lucky to have you" and with that she walked off

 _Well that was weird..._ I thought. I looked at my watch and four minutes had already passed. I already lost my chance to talk to Spyro and Cynder as they were talking to Azureth and Brutus. So I just reached into my pack and grabbed a granola bar; it was dry and lacked a lot of flavor but it did keep my energy up. After the minute I rounded up the soldiers and we continued the march; I was starting to doubt my men a few times however. We had a few instances where some of us were scared by the tiniest spider that probably wasn't even venomous! I really thought my men had more discipline than that! I mean we're in a forest! We're prone to get a few creepy crawlies on us but you can just flick or wipe them off! No need to shout "Ah! Get this thing off me!". That could get all of us killed if it happens during the mission!

After hours of marching, the sun was starting to set and while we did have oil lamps I didn't want my soldiers to freak out and drop their lamps and start a forest fire just because of the slightest graze done by a tree branch. We set up a large fire which was much easier done with the help of the dragons and pitched up the rest of camp. I grabbed an MRE that was labeled "Cheese tortellini with marinara sauce" and sat next to Spyro and Cynder near the fire. While I waited for the water-activated heating bag to heat up my food I decided to start a conversation with them.

"So, do you think we'll win this battle? I asked

Spyro grinned "Definitely, we've won two battles and they've won absolutely nothing except piles of slayer corpses."

"Spyro" started Cynder "Don't underestimate them, remember they broke through Warfang's defenses one time, killed Aquarius and almost killed the rest of the guardians"

"I never said I was; I was just saying that we've had two major victories and all they received is major losses" he said.

I chuckled "fighting the slayers is fun and all but… do you ever think that we could make peace with them?"

Cynder sighed "It's possible but it would be extremely difficult. They literally worship a dead 'saint' with the title of 'Dragon slayer's. But after all they did to me and the rest of our kin, I would rather see them all burn whether it be by our own fire or if it's in Hellfire…"

"That's understandable, I feel the same way but regardless of how we feel about them we should always try peace talks first and avoid a full scale war if possible." I stated.

"I guess you're right…"

Around fifteen minutes later I was digging into my pasta; it was good, not great but not horrible either. "Even if we don't achieve peace my so called 'brother' will have a lot to deal with; we've proven that we can and we will stand our ground and fight back with twice the power that the slayers throw at us. Remember, we also have God on our side and he allowed us to win against them and we praise him for it."

"...what if he doesn't grant us victory?" Asked Cynder

"Then we still praise him, whether we win, lose or at a draw."

"Even if we're killed? Even if me and Cynder are KIA?" Asked Spyro

"...Then I will still praise him; everything happens according to the Lord's plan. If he wants us to perish in the battlefield then so be it." I explained

"We'll whatever happens Enoch, we'll still be with you, we'll follow you through the gates of hell and make our way to heaven" assured Cynder, Spyro nodded.

I smiled; and as Spyro was eating his MRE steak I gave the age old question again "So… how many hatchlings?" Spyro almost choked on his food and Cynder broke out laughing.

"Again with this?" She asked

"Well you're already married, I just assumed you would have a few hatchlings or eggs by now."

"We do want hatchlings" coughed Spyro

"But being a father and mother takes a lot of responsibility and in some cases, patience. When I do lay eggs however, we will notify you and we'll also tell you when they hatch so you can meet the little dragons and you we'll make you an honorary uncle"offered Cynder

"I would like that and I'm sure you two will make excellent parents; I know it." I reassured

"We'll now I'm more confident, what about you Spyro?" She asked

"Yeah, definitely. I just hope a certain someone doesn't bother us too much…" groaned Spyro

"Who?" I asked

"Her name's Ember; she's a pink dragoness who was always in love with me ever since we were teens; despite me being with Cynder she always tried to get me separated so Ember could make her move; they always failed but some became dangerously close. I think one day she tried to bribe the guardians into putting me with a room with her for a few hours; thankfully they didn't take it. She doesn't know that Cynder and I are married and probably still thinks that we're in Warfang but I know someone will tell her at some point… I don't suppose you could deny her access from New Warfang and Unitatis Terra?" he asked.

I chuckled "Sorry, I don't think Astershell will appreciate nor tolerate one of his citizens being denied just because of teenage drama. Besides I bet she already moved on to some other dragon"

"I hope so…"

We broke up camp bright and early in the morning and continued marching; to my surprise we passed through one village. That wasn't the surprising part though; what was surprising was that the villagers were gracious enough to give us much of their supplies which included food, water and even blankets. We humbly accepted their items but when I asked why they were being so kind; they only said 'Just complying with the law, sir'. By that point I was confused as I didn't issue such a decree. We left the village with a few extra cartfulls of cheese, milk, fruits like apples, vegetables like carrots and so on. It's not like I was being ungrateful but I wanted to know which law I put up that made them give us some of their precious resources. After hours of marching we were near enough to the temple as I could see the large golden dome. "We'll set up camp and attack at midnight. I'll explain the plan when we start to move. Understood!?"

I received a loud "Sir, Yes, sir!"

"You are all dismissed to eat, sleep or if you want stay awake. You just better be ready when we start moving." We all dispersed into our own groups, some were talking, some were eating and some were setting up their twelve person tent to sleep in. I decided to set up my private one person tent and while I was putting it up John approached me.

"Hey Enoch"

"Yes John?"

"You remember the law that the villagers were following?"

"We'll they didn't specify so no, not really"

"You didn't remember any law that would have them give us some of their crops right?"

"Yeah, it was weird"

"About that… I decided to set up that law"

"What? Without my permission?"

"Yeah, it's just that the Skyforce is the military of Unitatis Terra and a military needs to be fed and supported to survive. I decided to write a law that stated that whenever any soldiers of Skyforce passes a village or a populated area that's not New Warfang, must give forty percent of their resources to the soldiers and sixty percent if the portal master is with them"

I sighed "John, listen. I see what you're trying to do here but don't you think that's a little much? And how did you forge my signature?"

"Dude, your signature is literally your name in cursive with an 'h' at the end; it was easy although your handwriting needs some work. On paper it seemed like a good idea but in use it Did seem a bit extreme"

"You think? That tax is way too much. That could possibly starve whole villages and if that happens who are they going to blame?" I didn't let him answer "that's right. Me." I sighed "From now on, tell me when you write a new bill. If I think it's a bad idea then I'll either reject it or see if I can improve it. If it's good then I'll sign it and give it the stamp of approval. Is that clear?"

John nodded and stepped away.

When I finished pitching my tent I decided it was time for a much deserved nap. I dreamt that I was in complete darkness with a feminine evil laugh booming in the area, a faint glow emanated from beneath my feet which resembled a human hand and grabbed me. The hand then formed into a cage and heavy chains were slithering around me like a snake which went all the way up to my neck and all I heard was "You're forever mine and no one else's" and whenever I struggled to get the snake-chain off of me, it tightened itself even more up to a point where I could breathe properly. That made me panic and I struggled even more until the chain started to tighten around my neck, I heard a snap and woke up in a cold sweat to see nothing but darkness. I couldn't even see my hand two inches in front of my face! I groped around the floor for my flashlight and eventually found it. I turned it on to see that I was still in my tent and when I unzipped the door there was something blocking my way. It was a tarp, not just one but five heavy ones on top of my tent. When I was done inspecting my tent I looked to my back and I saw my men either sparring with their swords or wrestling, talking and basically their own thing… at least some were doing something productive. I looked at the moon which was in the middle of the sky so I decided it was time to start the move; I gave the order for my men to fall in and they got in a ten by five column. "Listen up because I will only say this once!" I warned "First, we will pack up camp. Afterwards we will march to the back of the temple, a scouting/ kill squad will ride on the dragons to the temple's balcony to be dropped off. They will then eliminate any surrounding enemy presence; after all is said and done they will mirror flash two times from the balcony as a signal for us to move in. Five dragons will carry us by twos; from then on we'll terminate every dragon slayer life with stealth. Understood?" I asked

"Why send only a few scouts when we can send the whole army? We have enough dragons don't we?" asked a soldier

"While it is true that there are more dragons than humans and cheetahs; the sound of flapping dragon wings is loud enough. If we all mount on the dragons, we'll risk alerting the slayers; which will mean that there will be assault rifles and high caliber machine guns on us; maybe a few rocket launchers. Let's say we mount on the dragons and alert them; the dragons could try to evade, we'll fire back but trying to get a bead on the enemy with them flying all over the place trying not to get us or them shot in the process is not a very simple thing. Sending a few scouts will minimize the risk of alerting them." I explained "Any other questions?" I asked, they stood silent "Good. Break camp and move out!" I ordered.

We marched for around an hour and a half and came to a stop when we faced a three hundred foot cliff; we did the obvious thing and flew down via the dragons that were with us and walked the rest of the way to the back of the temple. I had ten scouts move into the temple and waited for around thirty minutes and was getting worried that they were killed until I saw two flashes. I had to make sure that they were my men so I took to my dragon form and took a better look; they did have a splashes of red on them but for the most part they were wearing the forest camo uniform so I put the rest of my plan into action. When we got on the balcony the scouts informed me that the reason they took so long was not only killing any dragon slayers that were close but disabling any traps and bombs that they saw.

"Good job" I congratulated "Alright boys, you know the plan. If you find any slayers, kill them; whether they're asleep or not." I whispered

I took out my knife, two of my soldiers and one dragon; we searched the left hall, the giant dome-roofed living room in the center. At first I **thought** we were doing extremely well, I didn't hear any gunshots, no battlecries or anything… until all I saw was white and lost at least half or more of my hearing! We were hit by flashbangs; the slayers have discovered us. In about five seconds my vision came back and saw slayers come out of rooms that have been built all throughout the temple with flashlights attached to their rifles. Two of my squadmates were already killed and the dragon was getting maced left and right, I drew my sword and started cutting down the slayers that were around him. The dragon, who's name was Cole used his breath weapon to start burning them into literal ashes which also offered some light. While Cole as burning the slayers I took a quick look around and we weren't in a good situation; we were dispersed and out of formation, the rest of the dragons offered a bit more resistance but my human troops were being shot down, maced and bayonet stabbed. It was chaos but we had to push on! I ordered for everyone to regroup but no one heard me; the flash bang effects must have still been affecting us. A slayer snuck up behind me and kicked me down; raised his mace over his head and swung down. I dodged to the left and because of his overswing, the spikes got stuck in the ground; I took that chance and kicked the man in the groin which made him take off his hands from the mace and grab his scrotum area. I put my sword back in its sheath; pulled out my pistol and fired a single shot to his head, right between the eyes. Through the battle I found myself running out of ammo on both my 1911 and springfield. I drew my sword but still stuck close to Cole and covered his six-o'clock and cut down any slayer that was behind him until I tried to cut another one; however my cut was off and my blade bounced. I didn't expect that so I accidentally let go of my sword which landed who knows where; the slayer tried to bayonet stab me but I caught the end of the barrel and tried to move it out of my way which probably wasn't the best idea but when that wasn't working I moved to the left and let go of the barrel to which the slayer ended up stabbing Cole's armor which broke the blade so I took my trench knife out and slit his throat. I decided to take my my dragon form and continued the fight however it got harder when they started to come out of the rooms wearing steel plated armor and ballistic shields; for the humans anyway, if they were using their swords a cut will not go through armor, much less steel plate. Fortunately I had all of my men read historical fighting manuals and one way to defeat armored opponents is grabbing the blade and using the guard and pommel as a makeshift mace, or using the sword as a short spear and thrusting into the armor gaps. Through around two hours of fighting, my hearing was starting to come back and I thought it was time to give out an order "regroup into a dragon-wall formation!" I barked. Fortunately, they did hear me; all the dragons (including me and Cole) formed a line and spread out their wings into a "wall" and the rest who weren't dragons went behind them. Basically the same thing we did when the slayers attacked New Warfang. We marched forward and spreaded through the temple, killing any dragon slayer that was inside. Once that was done we all broke formation and regrouped at the center of the temple; I had John give me a death count of the Skyforce. "We have seventy nine wounded, thirty of them severely injured, forty-three dead, including three dragons" He answered. I was fairly ticked off by this as we didn't do anything to get spotted (as far as I knew). "It was all going well, I didn't hear any of you make a sound, I was sure you were all doing your jobs efficiently and effectively… That is until the flashbangs hit us, so tell me… Who is responsible for forty three corpses and seventy nine wounded!?" I barked

They all stood silent.

"Nobody huh!? The fairy bloody godmother did it eh!?" I grabbed the collar of a private "Was it you, you piece of crap!?"

"Sir, No sir!" He responded

"I bet it was you! You look like the kind of guy that would be the weakest link! It's your fault isn't it!?"

"Sir, no sir!" He persisted.

"Sir, I was the culprit, Sir!" Shouted out a very familiar voice

I let go off his collar and stepped back "Step forward!" I shouted

Maria came forward

"What have you done!?"

Maria gulped "My squad was doing what everyone else was doing, killing any slayer we came across. I was also in the front so I was in charge of finding and disarming any traps… I got distracted looking at someone and I must've accidentally triggered one. I'm assuming that's what triggered all the flashbangs" she explained

I growled "Well because of your little distraction, the blood of forty skymen and three dragons are on your hands!" I concluded "Get back in the crowd" I ordered, to which she slowly went back "Because of what Maria has done, I will not just punish her, I will punish her and all of you! We leave in two hours. Dismissed!"

The soldiers spread out but I reached out and grabbed John's shoulder "See to it that the wounded are cared for and that all the slayer's weapons are brought back with us, including any blueprints or other potential items." I ordered

"Very well sir." he responded

As I explored the temple for the remaining time I came across three interesting blueprints: One seemed to be a massive railgun that could be attached to walls as artillery and the other two were mechanical fighting suits, however one seemed to be much bigger than the other.

The second hour passed and I did as I did in Warfang, leaving a fraction of the army to wait for Sky Force reinforcements and guard it while the rest of the army head back home.

Author's note: Wow, sorry for the wait. After the last chapter I decided to take a much deserved break… and extend it for a bit more. But now that I'm back I'll do my best to update TBB:DOD (The Blue Blaze: Defender of Dragons).


	22. Chapter 22

After Everyone came back and I thought they forgot about their punishment, I decided it would be good to make due on my promise. What those men thought was a regular day of training would be a day of hell. "Fall in!" I ordered, as soon as they formed in front of me in a ten by five columns I started to remind my men "You may recall that second lieutenant Maria caused a two hour battle with the slayers that easily could have been avoided if she wasn't distracted. I said that not only was I going to punish her but all of you as well, you work as a unit and if one of you fail, you all fail. Which means all of you were the cause of forty-three dead soldiers! What I will do is make all of the ones who were in the raid run on the track for three laps, after that two hundred push-ups on my count, then elbow planks for forty minutes and the obstacle course again and again until I get tired! Do you understand!?" I got silence "I said: 'Do you understand!?'".

I received a nice and loud "Sir, yes sir!".

"Good! Oh, and one more thing! If one of you fall during push-ups I will add ten more, if even one of you lag behind on the track, I will add one more mile, if you fall during planks, each and every one of you will owe me ten more minutes! Go!" I ordered. The track looped around the new and improved base which equaled five miles so usually I thought one was enough but what Maria did really ticked me off, again, she costed the lives of forty-three good soldiers; it wasn't a lot compared to the whole army but like I said before I regarded them as my own children and as a wise man once said "Regard your soldiers as your own children and they will stand by you, even to death". I had the rest of my men do the regular training which consisted of one lap, one hundred push-ups, fifteen minutes of planks, one run on the course along with other similar exercises and after that would be firearm training and teamwork exercises.

Maria's group finished about two hours later and after I saw that they had enough torture and possibly a slight hatred for Maria's mistake, I let them complete the rest of their training. I trained for a bit also but finished in a few hours as I had to check on a few projects for the Skyforce. One project was for my gunsmiths to reverse engineer any dragon slayer equipment that was brought back with us which included rifles, machine guns, shotguns, and even rocket launchers. They had two options, which was to either mass-produce replicated weapons or use the gun parts to make a better weapon; my smiths chose the simpler option and decided to replicate and mass produce to my men. Before you say anything about me being an unoriginal person for not creating our own weapons, let me tell you this; the Romans did the same thing, they were one of the most powerful militaries in that era because of taking enemy equipment, reverse engineering and making it their own weapons. Many other strong militaries did the same thing, in World War One the Germans took the tanks of the British because they were so efficient at blocking ordinary rifle shots; capturing and replicating is a very common practice in war and is very efficient. The weapons that were mass-produced for the military were the Steyr AUG assault rifle, the Remington Model 870 shotguns, Browning M2 heavy machine guns, M249 light machine guns, M11OA1 Designated Marksman Rifles (DMR's), M2010 sniper rifles, M107 anti-materiel sniper rifles, and M72 LAW disposable rocket launchers. As for the vehicles we took when they attacked New Warfang, we also had them reverse engineered, unfortunately, the artillery was still a bit slow. My engineers also had tasks, three brand new projects to be exact, which would be the railguns and mechanical suits. The railgun base was already being built and so were the feet of the mechs, I couldn't wait to pilot one into battle and destroy any dragonslayer scum. As the days passed by the mech suits and the rail guns were being built little by little but enough firearms were produced to outfit the rest of the army which quickly replaced the old bolt action rifles and century-old machine guns, we still had the mortars though, we would have replaced them if we captured any from the slayers but we didn't seem to find any. Some soldiers, however, seemed to have made a strong bond with their rifle as if it was a living being and wanted to keep taking it into battle. Those men were made to buy and sign a paper, acknowledging that they'll be responsible for their own weapon and that the military will not supply him with ammunition or any cleaning supplies but will have to buy them himself, along with one thousand five hundred talons which are the equivalent to one thousand five hundred US dollars.

The weapons that weren't bought by the soldiers or turned into spare parts were put on the civilian market so that they could not only buy front loading rifles for five hundred talons but could also buy a bolt action rifles and machine guns (with a special permit) for one thousand five hundred or two thousand talons, depending on what they were buying. Later on, civilian versions of the current military weapons would be put on the market as well, just a bit pricier, except for rocket launchers and grenades as those were too dangerous in civilian hands. Swords were also made for civilians for about five hundred talons, depending on what kind of sword they wanted, whether it was a saber, a longsword, arming sword etc. Just because we spent a lot of money and time on the military doesn't mean that was the only thing that was spent on, however, money and time were also spent on the economy and the education system. By law, everyone who was by age 2 and a half (Including hatchlings) was to start their academic life, starting in pre-k, then kindergarten, then elementary, then middle school and so on. Going to college is an option and those who finished high school were able to work but it was recommended to go and finish college as many companies are more willing to hire college graduates than high school graduates; if a high school graduate did want to work, however, they would be given minimum wage and have them work their way up to get more money. We also worked more on the infrastructure like sewage systems, streets for bikes, sidewalks and quite a few parks scattered all around New Warfang and the rest of the cities and villages. Smaller walls were also built to help protect the people from more invasion of the slayers and always had military on-hand to protect and not end up like the guardian temple.

Now that I'm done boring you with facts about Unitatis Terra and how the country works, let's get back to the story, shall we? We had a few more days of peace which meant a few more days for my engineers to get the mech suits and railguns built and a few more days for my men to train hard. That was until Jane and I were walking around a nearby park (I suppose you could call it a date) until we heard the dragonslayer attack alarm; we weren't really armed except for our 1911's in our holsters which wasn't much so I turned to my dragon form "Would you like a ride, my queen?" I asked.

Jane blushed "Yes, please"

"Hope on and hold tight. I wouldn't want you falling now"

Jane immediately got on me and when we got to the wall I saw… no one but three people, one I recognized. "Spyro" I started "Give me a status report"

"Three dragon slayers started to approach the wall, we gave them a warning that we'll have them shot if they take another step and to our surprise, they did stop and raised their hands over their heads. They've been standing like that for a few minutes."

"Interesting… State your business!" I ordered

Carlos Luis rose his head "I only want to talk, that's it, I want no more fighting"

Obviously, I was suspicious so I took some safety precautions "Have Carlos and the other two handcuffed and bring them to my house; I don't want any funny business going on" I ordered one of the officers. As Jane and I went home, she asked me "What do you think they want?"

"I don't know but judging by what Carlos said, maybe he wants to sign a peace treaty and avoid a full-scale war" I guessed

When we got back, Jane got off of me and I turned back to my human form, I then informed the rest that Carlos Luis, the leader of the dragonslayers was coming to the house to talk about something. I grabbed a pencil and paper, went to the kitchen and sat on one of the chairs, waiting for them. I soon heard the doorbell but before I got up to open the door John beat me to it and they started to come in. The siblings then started to take a few seats, Jane sat on my left side, John on my right, Maria next to John, Stix next to Maria and Jake next to Jane. The three slayers sat right across from us and four skymen stood in the four corners of the room, rifles ready if something got too messy. "Is this really necessary? The handcuffs, the guards and your close friends who are probably armed right next to you. Like I said before, I came to talk, not to fight" Explained Carlos

"You haven't had a very good reputation when it comes to the dragonkin" I said

Carlos sighed "Fair enough… can you at least get these things off of me?" He referred to the handcuffs

"Yes, if no weapons are found on you or your men"

My soldiers started to pat them down and soon as no one had weapons on them they took off the handcuffs of the three, still keeping their guard up.

"While you may be our enemies, we should still as hospitable as possible. Would you three like some tea?" Offered Jane

"Yes. That would be lovely" Accepted Carlos

Jane then got off her seats, took seven teacups and started to prepare the beverage

"So, if you didn't come here without a weapon to kill me, why did you come here?" I asked

"Why would you think I want to have you killed?" he asked

"Hmm, well, let me see… I led a small army against you to reclaim Warfang which succeeded and had you cowards running with your tail between your legs, we took out the force that attacked New Warfang and just recently retook the temple that your men captured and left no survivors. Also if the king is killed somehow without an heir to the throne, the Skyforce and the rest of Unitatis Terra's morale will be put down which will make it easier for you to capture and rule in your own image which I assume would be full of dead dragons and people living in fear" I explained

"Well, that does explain why I have a large gap in my forces and yes, that would be accurate but that also brings me to the reason why I came here. I have noticed that any attacking force I throw at you, you always fight back ferociously and decimate my soldiers. If I keep fighting against you it'll probably spell doom for me so I would like to make peace between us, no more bloodshed."

"I see… well, forgive my skepticism but you don't seem like the kind of guy that would keep a promise like that, besides, don't you lead a group that is dedicated to the extinction of all the dragonkin?" I asked

"Why, brother, I'm hurt, I decided to renounce my dragon killing ways"

"First of all, don't call me 'brother' I'm not your brother, and second of all, according to what Spyro told me, you took great joy in 'sacrificing' that emerald hatchling and you also had a wide smile on your face when you were about to chop Cynder's head off so why should I believe you?"

Jane finished making the tea and started serving it to each of us, except the soldiers as they had to stay ready just in case they tried to pull something. Carlos took a sip and continued to speak "The dragons I killed, especially that hatchling you mentioned, haunt my dreams every night ever since you took back Warfang. Every night I dream I'm lying in nothing but darkness, motionless and every night, the dragons I've killed surround me, first, they stare at me for what seems like hours with their eye-less eye sockets, they then reveal needle-sharp teeth and start to bite me while ripping and tearing my skin into pieces. Every morning I wake up screaming and in a cold sweat. I figure the nightmares may not stop but at least I could make it easier on myself if I swear off dragon-killing and make peace with you. Besides, I thought that's what you wanted: a world where no dragons are being killed day by day"

"Don't get me wrong, I do want a world like that but-" I thought for a moment. There were a few ways this could play out: 1. This is just a plan so I can let my guard down and he'll be able to stab me in the back, maybe literally. 2. A treaty would be made but after a few weeks it would be broken and they'd be back to their old dragon slaying habit. 3. He'll have some unreasonable demands and I would be forced to meet them for a peaceful world for the good of my people or 4. He actually does mean well, has truly renounced his ways and honestly wants peace with me (Which I found highly unlikely). After a long pause I sighed and started to write on the paper, the words being "I, Enoch Hernandez, sign this paper, signifying that I have consented to any reasonable demands that the leader of the slayers has made if it means peace and no drop of dragon blood should hit the ground" and wrote a new paragraph vice versa to my portion with two blanks where Carlos was supposed to put his name on and the army that he led. "Now sign" I demanded as I pushed the pen and paper to his face.

"I have some demands" informed Carlos

I growled lowly in my throat "Of course. What are they?"

"I would like you to give me Jane, so that she may be my wife"

"Excuse me, what!?" Both Jane and I stood up and shouted "No! That's outrageous!" I protested "Did you even read the paper schweinehund!?"

"Now, now, no need to call me a pig-dog, that seems perfectly reasonable. It's not like she's your betrothed is she?" He asked

I could not believe what he was saying, I took a look at Jane and if looks could kill, Carlos would be a dead man with probably a few knives in his chest. I was about to speak but Jane beat me to it "We're dating, it's pretty much the same thing"

Carlos sighed "Shame. You are quite beautiful. What about Maria?"

Maria then growled and stood up and drew her firearm, about to shoot "Hold your fire!" I ordered, Maria then gave him an equally menacing look that Jane did before and slowly put her gun back in its holster "women are not objects, they never have been and they never will. You can't just sell or give them as if they're trading cards, even if they're to create peace treaties."

"Why not? It was done many times before" Carlos protested

His words infuriated me so much that I would have preferred looking at him with a bullet hole in his head but I tried to keep my cool as much as possible "Maybe because we're not in medieval times; back then women were treated as if they held no merit and were treated like trophies. Now, however, we live in a civilized society where women are finally seen as individuals and are supposed to be respected" I explained "How did you even know their names in the first place? I'm pretty sure I never said their names, they all stayed inside the tanks so why would you even recognize their faces?"

"Oh, we all have our… secrets, don't we? Anyway, if I can't have a bride, then how about seventy percent of your harvest? That sounds a bit more reasonable"

Okay, at least he wasn't asking for people but that was still a lot, I have a country to feed which is much bigger than his much smaller forces. "Fifteen percent. I'm sure you have enough food and water since you raised an army" I reasoned

"Fifteen percent" he haggled

"Deal. Now sign, once you do that, you will stop the slaughter of all dragons and any that you have captured will be brought back here so that we may send them back to their villages or tribes and family. Any buildings that you have captured will be ours and you will evacuate your men outside and back into your base. Furthermore, you will surrender all of your weapons and military vehicles you have at your disposal and that also includes any military vehicle and weapon blueprints; basically, you will become de-militarized. You will then show us your HQ and afterward, I will have my soldiers encamp near the borders of your base; they will be allowed to patrol inside it and have the authority to fire upon and kill anyone who threatens them. If your people come out of headquarters, a squad of my men will follow them and watch them closely until they get back"

"I suppose that's fair, it's clear you don't trust us and that's fine. As long as we get a share of your crops, we should be fine" He explained

"Good, and remember, I don't want this to happen but if I find out that even the youngest hatchling or the oldest dragon or my own soldiers whether by you or your people, that'll be enough to spark a war between us."

"I understand" he confirmed

As soon as he signed the paper, I made an announcement to all of Unitatis Terra that a peace treaty has been made with the dragonslayers. Carlos showed us where they were located with a map that was made before I came into power and lead us, including a battalion of my forces which included dragons, humans, and cheetahs, to a fortress with a half-built stone wall (It looked like it anyway) with many buildings inside the perimeter. Carlos told everyone about the peace agreement and what they had to surrender, surprisingly they took it well… maybe a little too well… They gave us all their weapons which included new mortars and military vehicles along with their blueprints and all the buildings they captured and even left their weapons inside them. For a little bonus, they also gave us the headsets they used to communicate along with the radio blueprints that connected to them and the radios. At first, I was suspicious of them but when some of my men tried them out on a few trees, they worked perfectly well and didn't blow up in their face or anything like that. When we left, I had the battalion stay to guard over for the next three weeks and that a new battalion would replace them so that they can come back home. So on February twenty-first of two thousand and twelve, the peace treaty between Unitatis Terra and the followers of Saint George was signed and the land was at peace once again.

So that's it, ever since that day, Unitatis Terra avoided being war-torn and has lasted to twenty-nineteen and I hope it lasts forever. Spyro and Cynder finally had two beautiful hatchlings, I am currently betrothed to Jane, Maria and the rest got married to other people, Sarah married a dragon with golden scales, green eyes with large wings who was also in the battle to liberate Warfang, Azureth found a red scaled dragoness with blue eyes and orange wings, I went and visited the mother who tried to have me killed before, made my peace and she revealed that Carlos and I were actually blood-brothers, I still didn't like him though.

Is what I so desperately wish would have happened but everything turned out much differently. Instead of a happy fairy-tale ending I just described, I got an ending that was much worse; this is real life after all! Life isn't all magic and rainbows, life is all about blood, sweat, and tears and in my case, it was **gallons** and **gallons** of blood and hundreds of tears… if I could pour them out, it would fill a small ocean, maybe even bigger! About ten months later the treaty was broken; one of my men was found brutally murdered in the base with an ax lodged into his head. I was furious! I was about to declare war but Jane stopped me and Carlos came back to New Warfang for a second chance, which I did give him but after twelve more times, I was fed up and done being merciful to those pricks! I was then sixteen and at my breaking point, we were at our thirteenth and final peace treaty and if they broke that, I promised myself that I would stop getting pushed around and take a drastic choice, go to war against them. As soon as Colonel Spyro and his battalion came back from the switching out with Colonel Sarah's battalion he immediately ran to my house to tell me something extremely urgent.

"Enoch!" He shouted as he basically barged through the door while we were eating some pasta, which I almost choked on because of it.

I coughed and looked toward the door "Spyro, what is it?"

"I don't think Sarah's going to make it! Nor the rest of her battalion!"

"What are you talking about? Explain" I said as I put down my fork.

"As we were leaving, I saw some carrying firearms, like the ones they gave us and something a bit different, it looked like a machine gun but it had several barrels on the outside"

My eyes widened, I had a good idea what that machine gun was "Why didn't you stay with Sarah's battalion!?"

"We would be only two battalions, two hundred against a whole army of at least five thousand. The results wouldn't have ended well, I know we've fought bigger before but I had a feeling that we wouldn't win that battle so I decided it would be best to inform you. We need to gather the other battalions now!" said Spyro

"No, there's no time. We'll go with what we have! I ordered

Spyro nodded, I excused myself and went into my dragon form. No one else came with me so I took off with Spyro's battalion who were still in formation and to the now complete fortress with miniguns pelting Sarah's last remaining forces with constant bullets. Those who weren't dragons were quickly full of holes and the dragons were severely weakened with exposed flesh for the scales were broken by the machine guns and when they were unable to fight anymore the dragonslayers along with Carlos went outside with large bladed axes, wearing those horrendous crimson camouflage fatigues got on them and started to decapitate them, one by one. I'm pretty sure Carlos saw us but for some reason he didn't have the machine guns fire on us; soon enough it was Sarah's turn, she saw us and shook her head and right before the Axe hit her neck she screamed one word "GO!" and just like Aquarius, she was beheaded. At that point, Carlos pointed at us and the machine guns fired on us; we were out on the open and even if we were a reasonable distance away from them they still reached us. We retreated but unfortunately, most of the ones who were riding on the dragons were shot off and if that didn't kill them, the fall surely did, only a few dragons were shot down but still, we barely got out of that scene alive! Our scales were shattered and the soft flesh was exposed everywhere! As soon as we arrived I made an emergency announcement; declaring war against the dragonslayers saying "The followers of Saint George the Dragon Slayer have betrayed our trust for the last time! It is time we take up arms and fight back! On this day, July the twenty-sixth of two thousand thirteen, I declare war on the followers of Saint George the Dragon Slayer! They will pay with their blood, every last one of them will fall, young and old, man and woman, they will all know the wrath and the power of the Skyforce!" And so, the bloody dragonslayer war officially began.


	23. Chapter 23

It seemed that the most logical thing that I had to do was initiate a counter-attack and crush them while they're still small compared to us. The thing was, they had miniguns! Guns that shoot six thousand bullets per minute! Our M2 Browning could only shoot 600 rounds max! I could have the dragons form a wall but that would only last for so long; if my troops aren't careful, it'll be a massacre, just like Sarah's battalion! Before I turned into a dragon I read a book that taught on how to be a good general and how to lead an army, and after I turned into a dragon I then broke a blue crystal which gave me the knowledge on all the military strategies down to the last detail; so this should have been easy! Then again, I guess even with the book and the crystal, strategies take a bit of time. I then remembered that we had the new railguns and thought that they could be used for the battle as artillery. They looked finished on the outside but the inside may have needed a bit of fine-tuning, I had to let them know in advance anyway so I radioed the commander of the east battery.

"Jacob, this is Enoch. How's your status on the railgun's completion?"

"It looks like they could be in working order but we never tested them. Why?"

"I plan on having them used against the dragon slayers, I would prefer that they at the very least take out their machine guns."

"I suppose that could be a good test… When do you plan on attacking?"

"I… don't have an exact time but perhaps tomorrow in the evening. Either I or one of my soldiers will contact you. After the first salvo, you may fire at will and use HE rounds to blow up the whole fortress."

"About that… We've only produced four high explosive rounds and about a hundred or so on armor piercing"

"What!? Why even work on AP rounds?"

"Well, we did take the mech suit blueprints from the slayers. It's possible that they may have created a second pair during their secret militarization or remember them. If they attack and use those same things, we may have a fighting chance with the AP's"

I sighed "Fair enough… Let's not use tomorrow as a test though. I already don't like losing soldiers, I don't want to double my losses because there was some defect in the guns or something."

"What do you suggest we use as a target then?"

"A tree, we'll use the tallest and thickest one in our vicinity. It may not be the same thing as stone but I think that's the best target we have."

"Willco. I'll call you when we're about to test them." (For those who don't know, "Willco" is short for saying "Will comply" in military radio talk)

"Roger that. Over and out."

For the next hour I started to train; push-ups, squats, pull-ups, sit-ups (100 of each), a whole lap around the track and target practice.

Jacob called me to tell me that they were ready and a warning was given out through the loudspeaker's that a weapon's test was about to start and for all to wear ear protection during the next ten minutes. It was a bit of a hike to get to the walls so I went to my dragon form and flew all the way over to the east wall.

"Targets found?" I asked

"Yes, sir. We found a few redwoods that seem like the perfect candidates"

I put on my ear protection "You are clear to fire."

"Understood." He took out his radio "All east railgunmen: aim!" the barrels started to move in unison and position themselves in the line of the targets that must've been at least 500 miles away. "Fire!" he ordered. That blast was extremely loud! I think my earplugs could only protect me from half of the sounds (I'm pretty sure even the slayer's heard it). I shook my head in reflex and when I looked in front I saw that there were simple, clean holes in the front of the trees but I can imagine that there were even bigger ones throughout the back.

"Those were the AP rounds right?"

"Yes, sir!"

I grinned "These slayers don't stand a chance against us… They signed their own death warrant when they broke the treaty… it's only a matter of time…"

"Aye. I give the war four months, maximum"

"Probably less. They're very few in numbers" I chuckled

"So, do you plan on fighting?"

"As much as I want to drive my sword through the heart of slayer's chest… I think I'll sit this one out. While I may be a morale boost to my men, I have no heir to the throne so if I go down, there will be no one to take my place."

"Won't one of the siblings take your place?"

"I guess so, although, between you and me, I don't trust any of them to rule my country; except maybe Jane."

As I was walking back, Spyro approached me.

"Hey, Spyro, what's up?"

"Quite a few things actually" he answered "I'd like you to come over to my house at 6:30 for dinner. You can bring any of your choosing."

"Alright, thanks. See you then."

Spyro smiled and walked off, I'm assuming to either his house or the market (Grocery store or whatever you want to call it)

When I came back, I informed Jane and invited her, to which she gladly accepted. At 6:15 I put on a red checkered shirt with blue jeans and Jane wore a beautiful, scarlet dress. "A little overdressed, don't you think?" I commented

Jane shrugged "We're going to eat in front of dragons, we should look our best"

"But you always eat in front of a dragon. Me."

"You're different"

"Oh really? How?"

"Oh, be quiet" she playfully pushed me

As we were walking down the stairs, Maria noticed us as she laid on the couch. "Well, where are you two going all dressed up?" she asked

"We're going to Spyro and Cynder's place for dinner. We'll be back in an hour or two." I informed

"Oh, well, have fun you two." She said, I saw a slight twitch in her eyes as I mentioned the word "dinner" so we left the building as quickly as possible, without looking too suspicious.

The outside of their house was glorious! It was a one-story house, mostly made out of birch wood along with a few overhangs with stone pillars as support. The walls were painted a light brown and in front of the white door with a window on the top, was a cobblestone walkway. In front of the windows was a garden of many flowers, from tulips to roses. I immediately regretted not visiting sooner, I mean, I always saw it through my room but being directly in front of it felt much different for some reason. Cynder probably saw us coming before-hand because as soon as I was about to knock, she opened the door saying "Welcome to our humble home you two. Please, take a seat". As we came in, the inside was much nicer than the outside. Every inch of the floor was covered in soft, grey carpet (except the kitchen), the walls inside were painted eggshell and there were tables and stands that held a few more flowers, glass jars full of smooth stones and wooden carvings of several animals like a dolphin and a turtle. I'm sure the place would have smelt like flowers but a majority was full of the scent of cooking beef. We took off our shoes and sat on the large, dark blue cushions that felt like sheep's wool.

While the house was very nice, it also had an unlit fireplace so it was a bit cold. Jane started to shiver a bit and when Cynder got the message she went into a room and brought out a large kotatsu and put it in front of us, leaving enough space for her and Spyro as well. For any of those who don't know, a kotatsu is basically a table with a heavy blanket in the middle, heat is usually caused by an electric heater attached to the table or by charcoal in a special compartment. When we put the blanket overall we could, we felt the heat immediately dissipate the cold. We began small talk while we waited for the food that I assume Spyro was cooking, things like, how is life and how she and Spyro are. As Cynder predicted, she and Spyro were going strong and I was glad for them. Normally when humans are married, it only lasts a few months and almost always has the man pay hundreds of dollars to the woman for things like child support or something similar, and if they have a kid, it always has a good chance of destroying his or her childhood.

"Sorry for the wait." Said Spyro as he started to put down the food.

"It's no problem. You have a nice place, I regret not coming sooner." I chuckled

"Why thank you, Enoch. We actually had some help from Hunter and the others like Azureth; we built this whole place in less than three months."

"Impressive" commented Jane.

"Did Azureth ever try to flirt with you while working?"I asked.

"Oh yeah, quite a few times. Saying things like 'Spyro is a lucky guy to have a hot dragoness like you' and other times, straight up telling me that he wished I was his. I got very uncomfortable around him and when I told Spyro about this, he stuck to me like glue, even though he knew I would never cheat on him"

"Well if that dragon even thinks about doing anything with her, I'll knock his fangs in." said Spyro.

The steak was perfectly cooked to a medium well and as a side, it was buttered asparagus (What is it with dragons always serving me that stuff?), either way, it was good. "The food was delicious, my compliments to the chef." I said as I wiped food off of my budding mustache with a napkin. Spyro and Cynder were both, deeply, looking into their eyes as if we weren't even there.

"Is… everything alright?" asked Jane

They both nodded "Come with us, please." requested Cynder as they got up.

I was a bit confused and I bet so was Jane but we got up anyway. We followed them to the end of the hallway and took a right to reveal a room. The roof and the upper part of the walls were painted sky blue with clouds also. As the blue started to reach the bottom half, it faded into green which I guess represented grass, colorful flowers were also painted. In the very middle of the room were several heavy blankets arranged in a nest-like formation and in the middle of those were a pair of two large eggs. They were about two feet tall and a foot and a half big, looking like very oversized chicken eggs. Both of us were astonished! I couldn't come up with any words except these:

"A-are th-these yours?" I stuttered.

"What do you think?" chuckled Cynder

"Yes?" I guessed

"You got it." confirmed Cynder as she went to lay over them.

"So does that mean that you two-" Jane couldn't finish her sentence because Spyro cut her off.

"Mated? Yes. Yes, we did" Spyro confirmed with a smile on his face. "We thought this would be the best way for you to meet your future nephew or nieces. Just don't make a big public announcement to everyone, even if it's going to go viral in a few days, we value the privacy we have so far."

"Y- yeah, of course" I started to imagine them breeding, but then shook my head to throw me back into reality. You too! Stop it! You perv… "You know, if you need an egg sitter for any reason, I can always come over and guard them for you. Free of charge. If you want that is." I offered.

"Why that sounds like a lovely idea… we'll take you up on that" accepted Cynder.

We left their house shortly after and I started to think way into the future again, about me being a full grown adult, a father and a loving husband to Jane. Sadly, those were just dreams… dreams that will never come to be...


	24. Chapter 24

"You can't go on the attack tomorrow!" Shouted Maria.

"Give me a good reason why." Demanded John.

"Uh, you can die!" She answered.

"Death is a common thing in a battle." he countered.

"John, there are hundreds, if not thousands that have volunteered to fight. You don't need to." said Styx.

Jane and I just came back from dinner and we came across this "Uh… did we miss something?" I asked and the siblings looked at me.

"Enoch!" Started Maria "Please tell John not to go tomorrow!"

"I don't understand what the problem is. We all fought before." Stated John.

"Yes but that was at a different time. When our army was only one hundred dragons, using outdated weapons and tanks. Now we have thousands gladly joining the Skyforce and fight. You or any of us are no longer required to fight in battles." Countered Maria.

"But what if I **want** to though." he argued.

Jane sighed "Listen, we all love each other and we don't want anyone to die but in the end, it's one's own choice to stay or fight. For Pete's sake! John is a grown man and the eldest of all of us!"

"By one minute!" Countered Styx and Jake.

"Enoch, are you going to fight?" Asked Maria.

"Unfortunately, no. I've risked my life enough for a while-"

"See! Enoch isn't going and he probably has more experience than any of us." Stated Maria.

"That's not very accurate. While I did fight before, it was maybe two or three times and also, it's not that I don't want to go, it's because I can't go (As much as I want to anyway). Because of my royal status and the lack of an heir, I can't go in all the battles I want as the more I go, the more the risk of me getting a fatal shot to the heart. If it wasn't for my rank, I would have gone in every battle, including tomorrows. Granted, I did fight in every battle but that was when we were defending our land or reclaiming land that was either rightfully ours or we were helping an ally." I countered "You've seen how any battle can be scary, that's why people go, so we don't have to. People go and reinforce the frontline so that the enemy doesn't break through and we can keep living our peaceful lives, but if there's no one to back them up then the enemy will easily break through the defenses and wreak havoc upon us." I sighed "Now John, are you completely sure that you want to go?"

"Yes, I was well aware of the consequences when we signed that sheet. We all were. You, Jane, Maria, Styx, and Jake. If fighting for the freedom of dragons means I have to die at some point… so be it. Besides, I already signed the paper to go on the attack so I would have wasted their time if I didn't go."  
The early Skyforce was really just a militia but after reclaiming Warfang, I decided to make it the official army of Unitatis Terra. I made a law that anyone who wanted to join the Skyforce would have to sign a sheet provided either by a recruiter or the current ruler; which included us as well. So on a piece of paper I wrote down the information and each and every one of us signed, making us a part of the official Skyforce, as for on any attack, I and the rest of my officers picked the battalions and soldiers and if anyone didn't want to go, then they could sign a paper and abort the mission before it starts. If anyone wanted to go, however, they could sign a different paper indicating that even if they weren't picked, they'll still go by free will.

"Very well. You're going to have to wake up early in the morning to get to the base, put on your fatigues and do the rest of what you're going to do. I recommend you get some rest, you're going to need it."

The others stood in shock but what was done, was done. For John, there was no turning back even if he wanted to for it was too late to change their mind.

That night after I got ready for bed I got under my sheets and started to close my eyes. Until I heard a knock at the door; I was annoyed but I got up and opened the door anyway. Jane stood before me wearing a white shirt and dark blue pajama pants. The short hair that I met her with for the very first time, grew since then, down to her shoulders.

"What's up Jane?" I yawned.

"Nothing much. Can I come in?"

"Uh, sure." I answered.

I closed the door right after she came in and I turned on my light.

"After we left Spyro's house, I was thinking, do you think we'll be good parents?"

I was taken back a bit "Woah, Jane, we're still teens, why are you thinking about parenthood all of the sudden?"

"Just answer the question."

"I mean, yeah, I guess." I answered, scratching my head.

"And you want to continue to fight the dragonslayers, correct?"

"Yeah?"

"But you don't want to risk dying and having no heir to the throne, right?"

"Where are you going with this?" I asked.

Her black hair seemed to glisten by the moonlight through the light curtains.

She got closer and closer until our lips were a few inches apart. "I have a solution that'll benefit the both of us…" she swooned with her hands nearing the edge of her shirt. Now at this point if I was a normal teenage boy, I would have probably given into my teenage hormones right then and there, but no.

I put a finger to her lips "Now hold on, darling."

Jane was confused "What's wrong? I thought this was every guy's dream." she puzzled.

"Well, I'm not just 'every guy'. I'm different. I do believe in this, mind you, but after marriage, when we're full grown adults, not young teens."

"But wouldn't I be doing you a favor in a way? We would have an heir and you would be free to fight, it's a win/win right?"

"At first, maybe, but in the long run, no. We would be constantly buying and changing diapers, feed it, be woken up by crying for who knows who long. Have you also forgotten that your sister and brothers live with us too? What would they do? Maria tried to kill you just by telling her the truth, imagine what she'll do to the baby. There can be many factors that we may just not be ready for. I don't even think protected would be a good idea."

"Can't you just leave your morals for one night so we can fool around for a bit? Some of my siblings are heavy sleepers so I doubt they'll wake up." she pouted.

"No Jane, I can't. My morals make me who I am and I'm proud of them. Is there anything else I can help you with, if not, then feel free to get out. I'm trying to sleep." I said as I made myself comfortable.

"Fine…" she sighed "I'm not going back empty handed though." she started to get under the sheets at the opposite side of my bed.

"What-what are you doing?" I asked.

"We're going to cuddle together" She stated

I sighed "There's no chance of you getting out of my bed is there?".

"Nope" she answered.

At least she wasn't forcing herself on me, we really just cuddled for the whole night. It was rather tempting though…

While I wasn't going to fight, I still had to pray with them and if it was the Lord's will, he would bring them back. I also had to send them off so I had to wake up at six in the morning… yay! Anyways, without disturbing the now sleeping Jane, I dressed up in what I like to call class A (Similar to the Marine's dress blues but a bit on the green side) and meet them at the doors. John waked up earlier to get his things and fatigues on so he didn't walk out with me. Maybe I should have sent them off in a public occasion but I just thought that would waste time. The sun was rising but I was still extremely tired so I immediately took off my uniform and put on my casual clothing and collapsed on the bed (hopefully not waking Jane up in the process).

As I slept, I dreamt a dream that I was in darkness and in front of me was a TV screen. I heard a voice say "They grow bigger…" and on the screen was puddles of blood with loose dragon scales floating on top and bullet casings around it. Screams, from such a low pitch, was now ear piercing, imagine screams of pain and anguish, and multiply it by ten or more; that's how loud it was. In the midst of the screaming was young voices calling out to their mothers and fathers, older voices calling their children; all equally scared and eventually the scream was choked out. I woke up in a cold sweat that morning and when I looked to the side Jane was, she was no longer there (Maybe she woke up and I scared her somehow?) It was eleven in the morning… the dream felt so short… could it really have lasted five whole hours!? As I went downstairs, Jake saw me.

"Morning sleepy head. Sleep well?" He asked.

"It… could have been better?"

"Really? I thought you would have slept very well on account of my sister being with you all night."

"H-how did you know that?"

"Oh, I saw Jane trying to get out of your room about nine in the morning as sneakily as possible, or she thought at least. I was already up by then and I noticed her, when I asked her about it, she turned red as a tomato and said you slept together… What exactly happened last night?"

 _Did- did she just try to screw me over!?_ I thought. "Okay, before you start jumping to conclusions, even though you probably already have, let me tell you, we didn't do anything too bad. All we did was cuddle, originally, however, she wanted to do something a bit… different…"

Jake sighed "Yeah, that was one of the things going through my head, not the cuddling, the other thing. Back in our village, a lot of guys dated her, none of us knew what happened on them but after every four or six dates, she came home crying. That only stopped when we left the village with our animals to start a new life and a kingdom, but we all know how that went. Anyway, maybe that could have been a reason why she was a bit more… friendly… than usual."

"Where is she?" I asked.

"Not sure. Maybe she's at Union park, isn't that where you always take her on walks?"

"Yeah, I'll try there. Thanks." I was about to reach for the door.

"Not gonna eat breakfast? I made some pancakes."

"Maybe later. I have someone to talk to."

I left and took to my dragon form. As I flew, my mind drifted to how my soldiers were doing. For all I knew, they could have not even made it to the fortress! What if the slayers planned for that, counterattacked and cut them all down! What if they fell into a trap and all died! I lost my train of thought as soon as my eyes locked on Jane, who was sitting on a park bench, with her head resting on her hands. When I landed on the other side of the bench, she lifted her head and looked the other way.

"Jane?... is everything alright?" She was silent "J-"

"I'm fine!" she snapped. This caught me by surprise, she was usually a sweet and beautiful girl, on the inside and outside. "I.. just have something in my eye, that's it." she said in a calm but sadder tone.

"Are you sure those aren't tears?"

After I said this, she immediately plunged her head into her hands and started to bawl.

 _Good job, you idiot!_ I thought _You've made your girl cry! Now, what!?_ I obviously didn't have any tissue paper on me or a towel so I offered my wing. After a minute of her crying (and me standing awkwardly, having my wing collect tears as people walked by us!) She calmed down and let go of my wing. After I shook off at least most of her tears she faced forward but looked down. "Listen… about last night." She started "I don't know what got into me. Maybe it's because we've dated for about a year and we haven't really done anything about it. With my previous boyfr-" She stopped herself.

I sighed "It's okay. Jake partially filled me in on what happened in your village, but I want to hear your story. Please, continue."

After a small pause, she continued "With my previous boyfriends and dates, they would start touching me in places that I wasn't comfortable with. I would move or smack their hand away, especially on the first date. After they got the hint that nothing intimate was going to happen in between us, they dumped me. When we got here, I met you and got to know you better. Something was different, you weren't about the sex or even tried to touch me in those places, you just seemed to enjoy our time together, even if I did the dumbest things ever. When we went to other villages or visited my old one and people called me names, you defended me and even ready to fight someone who got too close to me or you, even if he was twice your size."

"Then why were you trying to sleep with me? As you said, I wasn't and I'm not about all that, so why?"

"I- I don't know why. Recently I seemed to have gotten these urges and I could usually fight them back by reading a book or something but when you said you didn't have an heir, it must've made the urge stronger and I couldn't even fight back."

"I see… I had and still had similar urges but usually, I can keep them in check by thinking on my past or whatever. Like last night, I could have easily given in but then I thought that some things are worth waiting for."

Jane chuckled and looked at me "You're such a gentleman, you know that? Or should I say gentle-dragon?"

I shrugged "Eh, gentleman, gentle-dragon, whatever works for you." I nuzzled her. "Would m'lady care for a flight home?" I asked as I bent down. She was about to get on but I got a call on my radio.

"This is general Enoch, what's your status?"

Jacob's voice was on the other end "Sir, we're about to fire. Would you like to see it with us?"

I muffled the mic and asked Jane if she wanted to go, she nodded "Yeah, we'll be there in a bit. Over and out."

When we got on the wall I asked Jacob if John or any of the other officers called and gave their status but only John called giving the coordinates. Jacob gave the announcement that the guns were going to fire and gave us some binoculars to see the fortress better, put on our earplugs and the salvo was fired. What I saw was the top of the lone fortress being completely demolished and I couldn't resist giving John a call.

"What's your status Johnny-boy?" I asked.

John sounded slightly annoyed "First of all, never call me that again, and second, we're all good. We've surrounded the fortress and are moving in to plant the explosives. As soon as a hole's blown up, we'll rush in and wipe out every slayer inside."

"What if there are kids inside?"

"What kind of a sick man would send babies to fight us?" he joked "But seriously, we would probably take them as 'prisoners' and bring them with us to New Warfang so they can start a new life."

Sounds good. Good luck and be safe." I ended.


	25. Chapter 25

A day later, music was played loudly by an orchestra of two hundred musicians (All of New Warfang and surroundings cities probably heard them).

"Everyone!" My voice came through a loudspeaker from an announcer's booth "Let us welcome back our returning heroes!".

The heavy, steel doors slowly opened and revealed the incoming army, most, if not all, however, were marching at a slow pace. At first, I thought they were just trying to march at a consistent pace but… that wasn't why… When I looked at some of their faces, I could tell their morale was considerably low than the last time I saw them. As the soldiers continued to march, trucks were revealed with at least three hundred body bags. When the soldiers came to a halt, their friends and family bolted to them and frantically looked for some of their members. Like the rest of the people, I got off my seat and started to look for John, worried if he made it out alive or not. After ten minutes of searching, I thought my fears were confirmed until I finally found him talking to the rest.

"Glad you're back, John." I welcomed.

He nodded and looked to his siblings "Now if you'll excuse me, I have to put my gear where it belongs…" He excused himself and went with the other soldiers to the base with a grim look on his face.

"What was that all about?" I asked.

"We're not sure, we found him maybe a minute before you did. I asked him how the battle went but he just frowned and shook his head."Answered Maria "I think it has something to do with those trucks"

"No kidding, Sherlock…" grumbled Stix.

I looked at the bags… I have a pretty good feeling it didn't go as well as I hoped it would. Families were reunited but unfortunately… a large majority wouldn't be.

When John came back to the house, we prodded him with questions about "What happened out there?" or "Why were there so many body bags" in hindsight, this was a **horrible** idea but we wanted to know so badly!

"Alright! That's enough!" He snapped "You want me to tell you what happened? Fine! But you better listen well because there is no way I'm going to repeat myself!" He sat on the couch, clutching the right armrest. "When the railgun salvo was fired, we planted explosives on the lower parts of their walls, blew them up and engaged the enemy. The thing was, there was no one to engage. Their wall defenses were completely shut down but you would think the enemy would be waiting for us on the other side, but no. The whole place was empty! As far as we could see anyway...I had multiple squads search each and every building, they couldn't have evacuated, we had the entire place surrounded and even if they did, we would have seen some sort of sign. The next thing I heard was several beeps and every building was blown to bits which injured several of my men and possibly killed a few. To make matters worse, we were quickly being engulfed by a toxic, thick, green fog. I had everyone put their gas masks on as soon as possible but the fog was hurting my eyes, obscuring my vision and making my lungs feel like they were burning. I couldn't even see what was a foot in front of me but as I groped around my pack I managed to find it but before I could put it on I felt a giant pain on my knee and felt being thrown to the ground. All I saw was an object heading straight to my face, I barely dodged it, kicked the person off me and gave the direction of the attacked two bullets to what I assume was the chest area. I lost my mask and I groped around the ground to find it; I did find one but when I put it on, It was almost clear and I could breathe fresh air again. I looked around and saw dragon slayers sneaking up on my men and attacking them, some were rather small though. I heard gunshots, war cries and cries of pain and anguish all around me and through the chaos of the battle, I didn't focus too much on what the enemy looked like and made my attacks; shooting down any slayer I saw. When I looked up, the dragons were in the air, trying to fan out the gas; the slayers noticed this and began shooting at them. I know dragons have incredibly good eyesight but I don't even think they could see too clearly who was shooting at them. They shot their breath weapons at the general area but I decided to make it a bit easier for them to shoot any slayer who saw them. 'All units!' I shouted 'When you take out the slayer attacking you, make sure to grab their mask!' I'm not sure if that helped or not but I had to do something.

Thirty minutes later I saw my men actually fighting the slayers and not just spraying their ammo in different directions; while some had slayer gas masks, others didn't have one on so I took a risk and took off the mask. It was much clearer but my lungs still felt like they were burning so I put the mask back down. Soon enough I ran out of ammo for my rifle so I switched to my pistol, and as much as I tried to conserve it, I used all my ammunition and lost my bayonet somewhere so I drew my sword. Around an hour later I dragon slayer grabbed and threw me down and was about to finish me off with a gunshot to the head but a soldier saw this, bolted to him, kicked him in the groin, knee'd his stomach, punched his liver, face and throat. The slayer fell and never got back up. He lent me a hand which I took and he told me I didn't need that mask anymore so I took it off and he was right, all was clear, I could breath properly and my eyes didn't hurt. I threw it away but the man that helped me wasn't there anymore and saw no sign of him when I looked around. There were more important things at hand, obviously, so I didn't look for him long.

The slayers that remained saw that their plan didn't work so they all lined up in the back with whatever weapon they had and rushed at us. We let out our battle cry as loud as we could 'Gott Mit Uns!' and while some of us stood our ground as they probably had ammo to shoot, those of us with no ammo and relied on our melee weapons, charged and met them at midway. A slayer tried to cut me but I bound my sword against his, parried and cut deep into his neck. Another tried to mace me but I dodged and used that opportunity to stab into his jugular. Other slayers were attacked by the dragons who were in the air, some of them were turned into pincushions by earth spikes or icicles, others were flattened by boulders, some were electrocuted and some of them had their skin melt from their bones. Thirty minutes passed and the Skyforce was victorious; we took no prisoners. Even then, however, some of my soldiers dropped dead due to the toxic fog, even a few dragons; all foaming around the mouth. But that wasn't the worst part!" John immediately stood up "Enoch! Do you remember when I joked about the enemy sending babies to fight us!?"

"Yeah?..." I answered, not wanting to know what he was going to say next.

"When I looked at the bodies, some of the bodies belonged to children! Let me repeat CHILDREN!" He shook m with tears in his eyes. While Maria and Jane covered their mouths, the others almost threw up. "Through the chaos, I mistook slayers who I thought had some growth problems to children ages ten through sixteen! Another thing! When I removed some of the masks, I recognized some of those faces. They were people of our country! They were Unitarians! So not only have we killed children but we also killed our own people! Now, do you see why I didn't want to tell you this!?" After saying that he stormed off to his room. Jane was about to tell him to wait but Jake gently put his hand on her shoulder and shook his head.

 _Scumbags…_ I thought _How could they do this!?_

While John made it pretty clear that they killed everyone inside, he didn't specify that he eliminated all of them in one single attack, I had to make sure so I went outside to talk to some other officers who were at the battle. After a few unsuccessful attempts having my officers tell me about it (understandably), I found only one who told me the aftermath. His name was Noah Ford, a first lieutenant. I told him that John told me about the actual battle, I just wanted to hear what happened after it.

Noah sighed "Well," he started "We did eliminate every slayer **inside** the fortress, but I don't think that was the entire dragonslayer population."

"How so?" I asked.

"Well, for one thing, the army seemed a bit smaller than the entire population. We also made a second and third scan around the place and we stumbled upon a lever, just in case if it was another gas explosion, we put on our masks and pulled it, thankfully there was no gas or explosions but a staircase was revealed to underground trenches. We still kept the masks on just in case and stepped into it; surprisingly it was well lit. Careful of any traps, we scouted and found quite a few things."

"Like what?"

"It was a map of Unitatis Terra with every village and town in the country. Along with plans of escape. What they did was that they went to surrounding villages and convinced them to join them and fight against us. They trained a few eight hundred former citizens which included boys of young age. A day before the attack, the majority of them left, leaving the eight hundred and some of their own to fight us. Their plan was to stay underground until the explosions went off, put on gas masks and kill us. The children were to be the first ones to come out and were taught only one thing: How to kill, that and they were of smaller stature so they would be harder for us to see. If the gas were to dissipate, they were to make a line and make a final push. Which we all know how that ended."

"Did you find anything else? Like where they're located or which village they'll try next?"

"Unfortunately, no. A lot of things seem to have been burned to ashes, those must've been things they forgot to destroy. The only thing we could find was a singed piece of paper with the word 'well'"

"Alright, thanks for the information. I know it must've been hard for you to go back there."

Noah nodded and was about to turn away.

"Oh, by the way, you guys brought the map, right? Where'd you guys put it?"

"In the war room."

As I looked at the map for anything that was well shaped but I couldn't find anything, as for the Slayers, they could have been anywhere. Unitatis Terra is roughly about half of the size of Africa so it would be pretty hard to find their exact location. For all I knew, they could have become a bit nomadic and kept switching their locations to confuse us. To combat any dragon slayers convincing my people, however, I issued an order that battalions must be stationed in each town and village to build defenses and stay there for a time to make sure that nothing happens to them a few days later.


	26. Chapter 26

A week passed and we managed to find a few places that somewhat match the description of a well. There was a horseshoe bend with a nearly dried out river near a canyon, a large crater rich with minerals and natural resources and a meadow surrounded by tree covered mountains. While all the places were pretty far, the crater was the closest of them all. We figured that the slayers would be located there but we still needed to make sure.

Days later I received word that the slayers had tried to attack a village three hundred miles south of New Warfang. The village was surrounded by forests (like most of the other settlements) but some trees were cut down. In the place of the trees paths and roads were built, there was also room for the wall that was being built around it. Several flowers were also planted around it.

According to an officer stationed there, a soldier was patrolling but was shot in the arm. The alarm was raised and all villagers (except militia) were escorted into safe houses. As the militia armed themselves, it didn't take long to locate our attackers. After the shot was fired almost all slayers came out of their hiding places and just stood there like idiots and started firing, that and they still wore crimson fatigues.

As the slayers **attempted** to surround the place, they were cut down by machine gun fire. Just like how samurai castles were made, the walls had holes cut out in shapes of triangles and squares, allowing soldiers to poke out weapons like firearms and spears.

My forces were about three hundred and with the village militia (which were about five hundred) we were at seven hundred strong. The wall (while it was still under construction) was holding, there was a small problem, however, the height of the wall was about five feet tall so my soldiers would be very exposed if they stood up completely. While the walls were very thick (six feet), slayers could have vaulted over and then they would have had a bigger problem to deal with.

Hours passed and when slayers were cut down, they were being replaced by the hundreds. While my soldier's still had good morale and the dragon's armor was resistant to high caliber rounds, ammo was running incredibly low and were receiving a few casualties.

Pike formations started to form around the wall's borders to make it less likely for slayers to vault over. As the firing came to a stop, the machine guns were quickly taken down and spears were put in place. The slayers must have noticed that they were out of ammo so they attempted to jump and climb over the wall, but we're immediately skewered by the spears and pikes. Apparently, this was going on for half an hour and the slayers lost half of their force… not the smartest are they?

When they got tired of being poked to death, they grabbed rocket launchers and started to blow a few holes in the wall. Spearmen immediately started to form around the holes in a way that left them protected but we're still able to fight.

After an hour of relentless fighting, the Skyforce successfully defended the village with 20 casualties and fifty wounded. The slayers suffered one thousand nine hundred ninety-nine casualties. Only one prisoner was taken.

While my men were licking their wounds (some literally) and repairing the wall, he was being interrogated. The man refused to talk so more… drastic measures took place… eventually, he did talk and our suspicions were confirmed that their location was indeed the crater. After confessing though, he immediately grabbed my officer's pistol and shot himself in the head.

I thanked him for the information and had a meeting with my officers which included the siblings and discussed how we would engage the slayers.

"We could surround them." I suggested.

"But that's too obvious, they would probably want us to surround them so we can be lured into a trap." Countered John.

"Well, what else do you have in mind?" I asked "I'm open to suggestions"

"We could probably dig underground and attack were they would least expect us" suggested Azureth

"Which would be…?"

He shrugged "Since the place is full of resources maybe they created a mine or something."

"A mine? They were there for at least a week or so, what gives you the idea that they could have built something like that so quick?" Argued Styx.

"Frick, I don't know!" Azureth shouted, "I'm just spit-ballin' here!"

"Okay, okay, calm down there. That's actually an interesting idea but I do see a few problems with it. One, like Styx inferred, mines take a long time to make so it's unlikely they would have built one and two, digging a hole would be very effective but also time-consuming, we could be ambushed during that time."

Ideas were tossed back and forth, dragon bombing raids, railgun salvos but I didn't think we could do much without knowing what it exactly looks like. I had several soldiers, one equipped with a yellow teleportation crystal. Funny thing about those things, those only worked if you saw the place with your own eyes but luckily someone had seen it before.

Anyways, the whole process took about nine hours and by the time I came back, I was sleeping. Now Unitatis Terra has had quite a few technological advancements and that included cell phones. So you can imagine the rude awakening I had at two in the morning when electronic music blasted out of my phone! I growled as I picked it up. "What!?" I whisper yelled.

"Sorry sir, did I wake you?" Asked one of my officers.

"What? No." I said with a sarcastic tone "I was simply just eating a cheeseburger and watching TV. Of course, you did, you idiot! Now tell me what you need or I'll hang up!"

"Right, sorry about that, it was the fastest way to reach you. The scouts are back with the information, I feel that it's best if you come to see it for yourself."

I sighed "Alright, fine. I'll be there in a bit…" I growled and hung up. I was still extremely annoyed so when I came into the room I immediately with "This better be good!"

The scouts indeed came back with info. To our surprise, the slayers **have** made a few mines, a campsite and everything in the crater. But there was a horrible reason why they made so much in so little time…

"We have grave news though…" sighed a scout "Just like Warfang used to be before your army stopped them, the slayers are using dragons to do their dirty work. In other words, the slayers enslaved the dragons once more."

My eyes were still heavy but as soon as I heard that, I slammed my fist against the table, I think I almost cracked it.

"... Can you please elaborate?" Asked an officer.

"Dragons that can devour earth were used to create the mines so that materials like lead and iron could be refined and made into weapons and armor. In the center of the crater, there was also an incredibly large building and had a slight glow from the windows, we think it could be a type of crystal. We obviously couldn't investigate further as the security there was extremely high; we even almost got spotted near the rim! We did manage to take a few pictures, however." They laid out the pictures and I took a look. There was a pretty large campsite, three hundred tents at least, slayers with pickaxes and such seeming to be coming in and out of the mine, some carrying wheelbarrow filled with objects. "Good work. Now go home and get some rest, dismissed." They saluted, I have it back and we all went home.

The next day we continued to discuss strategies and we finally came up with one. For the next week, we trained our soldiers to no end.


	27. Chapter 27

I said that we trained for the entire week but only six days were physical and mental. On the seventh day, we trained our faith by reading the Bible and having a church service. When we neared the end of the day, I closed off with a prayer.

"Lord, you have seen us train without pause. Not only physical and mental training but we have also trained our faith in you. Tomorrow, you know we'll attack the dragonslayers and put their wicked ways to an end. Lord, you know I've tried multiple times to make peace with them but they always broke the treaties. I ask of you to give us confidence in our life, give us faith like Daniel in the lion's den, give us hope like Moses in the wilderness and give us a heart like King David of Israel, Lord, be our defense so we can face the slayers with confidence. If it is your will, grant us victory over the slayers and we will praise you but even if you don't we'll still praise you. Lord, as your faithful bondservants, as your faithful knight, I ask of you to give me the wisdom to rule my kingdom and my army just like the wisdom you gave your servant, King Solomon. Our lives are in your hands, if we die, it's your will, if we survive, it is also your will. No matter what happens, Lord, please be with us, always. Amen." I ended.

"Alright boys, let's get some rest. We're going to need every ounce of energy tomorrow." With that, I dismissed and we all headed home. Something that surprised me was that throughout those seven days the siblings including John we're training with us. I suppose that when John said that the slayers used children, it must've fired them up.

We haven't eaten anything so I decided to hop in the kitchen and cook a large fillet of Salmon. While I was preparing the fish, Jane came up to me as I was humming star spangled banner.

"Hey, Enoch?" She called.

"Yeah?" I answered.

"Why are you being so calm about this? I mean, we could easily die tomorrow, aren't you scared that you could also…"

"Die?" I chuckled "To be honest, I am a bit. I know whatever happens is the Lord's will but it's only human to be scared of something like that."

"I guess that's true…" she sighed

"So, are you sure you want to fight? As you said, it's easy to die in situations like that."

"Well, I've survived the battle for Warfang, I'm pretty sure I can survive a second one."

"Gott Mit uns, am I right?" I laughed.

She smiled "But I am worried about Stix also." She said.

"Why's that?"

"In times of a lot of stress, he can be pretty… unstable. He turns into something else, a monster. Did you see him fight Warfang?"

"Well, I was trying to survive and not get myself killed but I did take a few glances. It was brutal, I saw him disarm a slayer and pulverized him with a made. In another glance, I saw him shove a Lewis Gun barrel into a player's mouth and fire down his throat.."

We had a good dinner that night… unfortunately, it would be the last time we all are together. Morning came and the army was up and ready, along with the reinforcements from Astershell and Chief Prowlus we were at one million strong. As the portal was opening, each and every one of us went through.

"Alright!" I started "Today we initiate our plan. First, we start creating holes eight feet deep with ladders placed at a side of each hole laid over with a trap door. After all, are carved, they will then be interconnected in a trench-like system. Half of you will be split into platoons with at least one dragon with the earth weapon with you to carve out a larger hole that will guide you to certain areas in the crater. The other half will stay inside the trench until further orders, once given the order you will surround and attack with project cavalry in front of you."

All dragons that had the earth weapon started to carve out several holes and interconnected and while that was happening I and some scouts started to map out the area and just like the scouts said before, there was an incredibly large building with a slight glow emanating from it which surprised me because it was in the day!

After we finished mapping out the crater we started to plan out our invasion spots. We waited a few hours after reaching our "base camp" for the dragons to do ish carving but after everything was done, I split the army into platoons and we all went inside the holes. For warmth and vision, we installed torches in the trenches, careful not to set the trapdoors on fire and set topside ablaze. When I told the carvers where their destinations were, we all sprang into action. My platoon consisted of Jake, me, Brutus and some other soldiers. Jane and Azureth were in a separate platoon and the rest were with the other half.

We didn't carry torches but we did attach extremely bright flashlights to light our way. Our progress wasn't as fast as we wished but it was working out for us. As we were moving, we stumbled upon a large torchlit cave with a hole on the other side. We spread out alongside Brutus and the other dragons, rifles aimed at it. We then heard battle-cries and slayers started to flood out of it. I was about to pull the trigger but I then noticed that dragons with barely any scales on them were in front of them putting up a wall formation. "Hold your fire!".

A slayer grinned and they began to fire. We ducked for cover behind large boulders as did the rest of the dragons. My men looked at me desperately but I was having an internal conflict. If we fired, there was a good chance we could hurt or even kill the dragons but if we did nothing, we would have gotten killed. "Screw it!" I muttered under my breath "Engage in semi-fire mode! Just try not to hit the dragons!" That was easier said than done, they were so effectively hidden behind them that we were forced to fire on the dragons. A few tried to make a break for it but the slayers immediately shot them dead. Our dragons started to flank them on both sides and made short work of them. I didn't feel like it was time to ask them their personal information so I just directed them into a portal to New Warfang for further assistance and tell them what happened.

"How did they know we would be here?" Asked Jake "Is this one of their mines?"

I looked around "Seeing as there's no wheelbarrow or anything like that, probably not" I answered.

"Maybe it's a slight coincidence, they could have already made a tunnel for a mine or something"

"I think not. I think we made a spy in our midst…" I sighed "We'll deal with that later, let's keep mo-" a shot was fired and our medic was dead. We immediately got back into cover "Geez! Where did they come from!"

Brutus looked at me with a look that said: "Seriously bro?"

"Right, I'm an idiot. Fight back!" As soon as I said that I saw circular objects with familiar waffling on them "Grenades! Watch out!" I warned.

Everyone managed to throw them back except Jake who was too focused on his weapon than his surroundings. "Jake! Watch out!-" the grenade that was right next to his leg blew up, he let out a cry of pain and then silence.

Brutus growled "You mother****ing pieces of ****!" He shouted as he shot earth spikes at the slayers, turning a few of them into pincushions. After fighting for ten minutes I heard groans and when I looked to my left I saw Jake trying to move but his leg was twisted in all sorts of places with grenade fragments all over his body. He was still alive after all that! I suppose God wasn't finished with him yet. "Someone cover me!" I ordered as I ran through the gap, try as I might to not get hit, I got shot once in the leg but I powered through to get to Jake's position. "Jake!" I shouted, "Jake speak to me!"

"Those pricks got me good…" he coughed

I was relieved.

"Help me… Help me get my leg back into place"

"Jake, I don't think that's going to help much!-"

"Just do it!"

I reluctantly did my best to pop his leg back into place which was very difficult with his broken limb. Jake had more than a few grenades on him which the frag didn't seem to hit which included impact, incendiary and his own fragmentation 'nades. He took a quick look at them from his boulder "They all seem to be grouped up in large numbers… I'm thinking that if take them out all at once and throw down a few more grenades down their entrance, it'll hopefully halt or delay any possible advancing slayers. Once that happens you'll have a chance at getting through and meet with the rest, assuming that they got through as Well." He explained.

"Don't tell me you're going to use yourself as a bomb!"

"I am" he stated.

"No, no, no! You're crazy! You are NOT doing a suicide bombing! We can just call for backup and-"

"And then what!? If they go through our hole, they'll get cut down before they even get to us, even with armor! If you use a portal crystal in this situation you'll need to be very specific on the location and I doubt you know where we are exactly or where the rest are. Besides, I'm not going to be much use if I even survive this. My left legs nearly out of commission, I have tons of fragments in me so I'm pretty sure I'm also going to bleed out. There's no point." He sighed "I really wish it didn't have to end like this but" he looked "Tell Styx I died for the good of the mission" he then put his hand on my shoulder and looked at me directly in the eye "It has been a pleasure both meeting and serving with you, bud" he gave me two final pats and pushed himself off of me to stand. As he began to walk near the walls of the cave I called out to him two times, but he didn't even make an effort to turn around.

"What's Jake doing!?" Asked Brutus.

"Nevermind that! Just cover him!" It took about ten minutes of non-stop shooting for Jake to reach the corner and army crawled toward the enemy. Fortunately, the slayers were fixated on us and not their surroundings. Jake threw frags down their entrance and shouted his last words.

"For Unitatis Terra, and for the freedom of the dragonkin! GOTT MIT UNS!" He activated the rest of his explosives and caused a massive explosion of shrapnel and flames. No slayer was left alive and Jake was no longer with us.

Some of my men were flabbergasted, shocked but I knew we had to keep going. "Let's go! We don't have time to wait to call reinforcements! We will not let Jake's sacrifice be in vain!" I may not have been crying on the outside but I definitely was on the inside, he may not have been as close as John was but he was still close to me, he and the rest were like siblings to me (except Jane obviously who was much more than that). As we proceeded to move through the cave we killed any slayer inside with no mercy, we would think back on the lives we took later. We eventually reached the middle building that was devoid of dragon slayers but me, my platoon and the rest of my assigned soldiers (what was left of them anyway…) and one massive dark purple crystal! There were strange carvings on it along with a few words that looked like Latin. There were hanging walkways on the top and evil laughter from a deep (almost demonic) voice echoed throughout the inside.

"The fools… these followers of this so-called Saint George think they can control me!? Preposterous!" I looked up and saw a man with pitch black skin and white eyes on the walkway. "I am a purple dragon! If anything, I should control them!" He paused and laughed "Maybe I will before I make them beg for mercy as I slowly tear them limb from limb!" There was a period of silence "Oh come on then! It's rude to stare!" He said.

Startled, I said "... Who are you?"

"Who am I? You must be joking!"

"... Nope!"

He growled "You ignorant soon-to-be-slaves, I am Malefor! The first purple dragon to have ever hatched and the great cleanser!"

Now that did ring a bell, the guardians (including Aquarius) mentioned his name a few times but never went into too many specifics except that he was gone for good and that he wanted to destroy the world, he almost did if it wasn't for Spyro and Cynder. "But I thought you were dead!" I shouted.

"Ah, struck a bell huh. Fool! I am eternal! My body was simply sealed away by those infernal dragon spirits!"

"Then how are you still alive? And in a human's body, no less."

"I did say my body was sealed, my spirit managed to squeeze out. I later possessed this man and made a deal with these cultists. Once they help free me, I will recreate my army and aid them in your war. However, I soon overheard them talking about enslaving me and just add my army to theirs. To be fair, I was going to slaughter them all anyway After my body was freed; I care not for your petty squabble." He admitted as he began carving more symbols into his crystal.

"I suppose after your freeing you will begin the great cleansing, am I correct?"

Malefor chuckled "Yes, you're not such a fool after all... for a human."

"Well then, I'm afraid can't let you do that" I then readied my rifle as did the rest non-human soldiers. The humans didn't understand what was going on until the others told them the gist of what was happening, where they readied their weapons as well.

Malefor grinned "Guards!" The walkway began to flood with slayers that were assumably outside. The dragons spread their wings to create a bit of a shield wall, not that it helped much. As I used up my very last Steyr magazine, I immediately dropped my rifle (even though it just slung around me) and switched to my pistol but just as I lined up my sights, I then saw a bright purple flash that blinded me for a few seconds. I heard an explosion, evil laughter and the sound of large wings flapping with screams of agony. When my sight came back I saw most of the dragons holding formation but some of I saw purple shards that partially punched through their wings but there were some holes in them which unfortunately meant the crystal shards that went through hit some of my soldiers… along with every slayer inside that were either pin cushioned or torn in half. The purple crystal had been destroyed and there was a hole on the roof that very much fitted a large dragon. Malefor had been released.


	28. Chapter 28

Chapter 28

We all ran out of the building and sure enough Malefor was making our job easier for us by ripping appart dragonslayers (A lot of the times, quite literally…). It wasn't long before I heard an alarm being raised and the slayers began to abandon the crater. Not what I planned for but at there was a more pressing problem at hand. When the all the slayers evacuated with at least some of their organs intact Malefor looked at us and grinned.

"You're still here? Why don't you make it easier for yourself and run away, just like them. You'll make you'll last longer." He suggested.

We rose our weapons, whatever we had on us, whether it be a firearm or sword and pointed them directly at him.

"So be it!" He laughed "You were all going to die anyway." he admitted. He began to chant in a language that I couldn't understand. Whatever he was saying, it probably wasn't good so I grabbed my radio. "All underground units get out and be ready to fight! Stay in the formation that was arranged."

"Roger that." Responded John "We heard a commotion, what happened out there?"

Soon, a portal began to appear with creatures crawling out of it, consisting of apes and other monstrosities. "No time to talk! We need an extraction! You'll see once you get out!"

We began to run in the soon-to-be-battlefield in the direction of our basecamp. I heard what I thought were branches scraping on steel and soon, project cavalry AKA dragoons began to come out of the forest. Mechanized battle suits fifty feet tall, outfitted with a bullpup rifle, a pistol and a dagger. Designed to take damage and dish it back out with twice the power. My army began to come out along with dragons heading toward us. John called me on the radio.

"Enoch! Is that a dragon!? You're telling us to fight a dragon!"

"Yes!" I answered as the dragons firmly grabbed and hoisted us off the ground.

"We're fighting to save dragons though, we're fighting for their freedom! This conflicts with one of our core beliefs! You do know that right?!"

"Not this one! This is a purple dragon like Spyro but unlike Spyro, he's bent on basically destroying the world. So not only would that kill the slayers but also the rest of the dragons and us! There's no reasoning with this guy! We need to take him down!" The dragons dropped us near the "camp" and John met me.

"Are you sure we can do this?" He asked.

"Let me put it this way, if we fight him, there's a chance that we'll die. If we do nothing, there's a one hundred percent chance that we _will_ die!" I reasoned.

"Fine… I'll command my battalion and await for further orders. You do whatever you have to do.".

I went into the underground trench and began to reload my firearms. A few minutes later I emerged with some fresh bullets in my magazine and a newly sharpened sword. I began to give out names of battalions and dragoon platoons through the radio "These units will attack Malefor, the rest of you will attack and keep Malefor's army off of us. This isn't what we expected, that's true, in war, you need to expect the unexpected and act accordingly. We have plenty of ammunition and man-power, we can do this. No prisoners, they won't be of use to us and just a waste of time and resources." I took to my dragon form and began to assist my battalion with Malefor.

His chanting not only summoned his army but it also summoned plate armor, this battle would last longer than expected. The dragoons began to fire at Malefor but the bullets only glanced off his armor! "Platoons Clydesdale, Appaloosa, Shire and Noriker, switch to armor piercing! You're not doing anything!"

"We've tried that sir! HE and AP! Even tracer rounds! None of them didn't even make a dent!" Answered a Clydesdale commander.

This was bad. "Remember your fighting manuals?"

"Of course we do. What about them?"

"If you remember correctly or even read them, you would know that to get through armor, you need to aim at the gaps! Don't waste your ammunition! Use HE rounds first, blow off the armor from his body and use AP after."

"Roger that."

The dragoons began firing in semi-auto, conserving as much ammo as possible. A few bullets landed, and began to shatter some of his armor but only small parts.

Malefor scowled "You poor fools! You just dug your grave! Allow me to bury you!" he growled as he summoned what can only be described as a circle-like forcefield. After a few seconds he began to spew lightning bolts out of his mouth!

I heard some of the pilots scream for a few seconds before they fell completely silent. Malefor then began to fly toward them with his shield blocking his front. He then put down his shield and shot a firewall at them. The dragoons that weren't electrocuted barely dodged it but after that, Malefore slammed into a Shire dragoon. The dragoon began to desperately try to grapple against him but was quickly being overpowered, the other mechs tried to shoot at Malefor but nothing happened and the bullets glanced right off his armor. Malefor finished him off with a thrust of his tail into the torso, where the cockpit was located, blowing up the mech.

"Shire 1-7!" I heard one call out on the radio "B**tard!" a dragoon pulled out his dagger and began to approach him. Malefor grinned and jabbed his tail at him, Shire 1-2 dodged and grabbed his tail, anchoring the mech to the ground with spikes attached to the feet. 1-2 began to pull with all its might but something was up, Malefor let himself get pulled. As soon as Malefor got close enough, 1-2 began to stab into an armor gap but he positioned himself in a way that the dagger broke in half.

"Okay. My turn!" Roared Malefor. I was in effective range and began to shoot a water stream along with the rest of the dragons but it had no effect on him as the back portion of his shield was up. We kept firing as it had to break at some point. Malefor shot acid and it quickly began to melt away the metal, eventually revealing the horrified pilot. Malefor speared him with a claw and ate him whole, his screams of pain and terror were nightmare-inducing! The rest of the dragoons began to back off a whole lot after that but it wasn't because they just saw their comrade being eaten alive, in a whole any way. Malefor began to walk to the rest of the dragoons, grinning his gory jaws like a madman, or dragon, in this case. As he opened his mouth for most likely another breath weapon attack, he was met with large HE shells. It was the railguns! Through the chaos, I forgot they existed! Large amounts of his armor were blown off which made him generate the rest of his shield.

"Cowards!" He shouted "Show yourself and fight me head on!" He looked left, right and pretty much everywhere but thirty seconds later, another salvo was fired and most rounds managed to break his shield and the few rounds that got in, blew his chest plate, entirely. Only his helmet and greaves remained on him. Shrapnel from the rounds broke through his scales and embedded themselves in his flesh, pieces of metal also penetrated his left eye, he was left blind in that one.

He took to the skies and partially put up his shield in front of him, leaving his back exposed. I and other soldiers mounted on dragons began to attack him, whether by firearm, bow or breath weapon. I saw a slight orange color irradiate from his mouth and began to back up, the next thing I saw was a firewall and dozens of lit corpses falling out of the sky. A few more railgun shots hit and broke through Malefor's shield, one completely blowing off his helmet and embedded some more shrapnel on his skull. You would think that would kill him, but no! That monster survived it! Thanks to that however, I hatched a plan. I flew up and began to find a good place to land which was pretty hard considering Malefor's army trying to shoot me down! After finding an area, I managed to dislodge a piece of metal which not only caused bleeding and more internal damage but it also created an entry point. I turned to my human form and drew my sword to begin thrusting.

As I lined up my thrust, I heard a screech and looked up. It was a dreadwing carrying an large ape. It landed a few feet from me and took a swing, I managed to dodge it without swinging but I also had to deal with the ape's spear! I dodged it only to get knocked down by the dreadwing. It then screeched, the pitch was like if you take a little girl's scream and connect it to twenty concert-speakers. I felt a warm liquid stream out of my ear and lost a large portion of my hearing. I growled and thrust my sword into the beast's face repeatedly until on my fourth thrust I felt a sharp pain in my left arm which stopped me for a bit. I reared my sword and went for an upper thrust that penetrated the dreadwing's mouth and up to its skull. The dreadwing fell off of Malefor's head, dead but the ape was still alive. He spear charged me which I dodged due to his telegraph of fully rearing his weapon up. I then pommel bashed his head which must have knocked him off balance and had him fall down, not off however. I firmly grabbed the my blade and murder stroked his protected head over and over. As soon as I saw an opening in the back of his neck I half-sworded which meant that I grabbed my sword's blade with one hand and used it like a makeshift short-spear. I drove the blade right through his neck and he stopped moving.

I moved over to the slit that the shrapnel caused and stabbed into it. Each stab went deeper and deeper, and my sword was bloodier and bloodier. The shrapnel hole was pretty tight but once I got my blade inside, it began to loosen up with every stab. On what felt like my fifteenth stab I felt a push and I was hanging from the tip of one of Malefor's horns with my sword in my dangling hand. I saw the ape that pushed me struggling to keep his balance, I sheathed my sword and began to inch toward his actual head but he beat me. I saw him raise his own sword and with a grin, he looked at me right in the eye. I remembered I still had my firearms so with my right hand I whipped out my Glock 26 and fired three shots. I missed one, one only dented his chestplate and the other landed in the non-protected part of his forehead. The ape fell down dead but so did his sword which sliced right through my left arm. All the pain I was caused was immense and that cut took the cake. I let go and Malefor, while using an ice breath weapon, bobbed his head down which had the horn slam into my forehead. Most of my hearing may have been gone but I could have sworn I heard a loud crack.I remember turning into my dragon form on some sort of instinct and when I landed, I heard another loud crack and with the sense of pain, my eyesight went from seeing color to pure black.

I woke up to an earthy smell and saw dirt as the roof, when I looked to my left I saw a white curtain with a red cross on it. "Medic!" I automatically shouted.

Quickly, a man in a white coat and a face-mask came in. "You're awake!" He sighed in relief "Aw man, I thought we lost ya."

"W-what happened? Why am I on this cot?"

"You almost died is what happened! Er-" he cleared his throat "You fell out of the sky and landed hard on your back. One of the squads in charge of fighting Malefor's army saw you and tried to wake you up but there was no response. After that, they hustled into the medical domain of the trench. Both a red and green crystal were broken, and while the wounds seemed to have been healed but you didn't wake up so we just decided to left you there and hoped for the best."

"You didn't do anything else?"

"What else could we have done? We couldn't have just opened you up because that would have most likely caused more damage than you already had. Besides, it's not like we have any descaling tools that would help with the process."

I sighed and rubbed my head "How long was I out?"

He was silent.

"Medic. Tell me, how long was I out?" I demanded.

"... seven hours…" he admitted

"Seven hours!?"

"... That's what I said. Our boys are still holding strong but we've been having mass casualties, including Liberty squad, the one that brought you in."

I got out of bed "I need to get back out there!"

"Hold on my liege! Are you sure about this!? There's a good chance that you may not survive another blow like that and we're short on red crystals! If you die, there will be no one left to take the throne and that will most likely cause the kingdom to fall and become separated like it was before!"

I stopped dead in my tracks and looked at him "If I perish, I perish. I'm putting my life in God's hands, if it is his will for me to be KIA, then so be it. He will have chosen a new champion." And with that, I walked out. When I stepped outside, everyone looked at me and I looked at them. "Can someone tell me how the HECK we've been fighting for seven straight hours!? You guys could have taken them out in three! Maybe less!"

"Enoch!" I heard Jane call "Malefor has been mowing down our forces! We're down to around three hundred thousand infantry units, twelve tanks, six armored fighting vehicles and one squad of dragoons. Malefor's army isn't helping either as when one falls, they're replaced by the hundreds! We've held them off from reaching our base with machine guns and the railguns but they can keep firing for so long. We're going to run out of bullets eventually! In order to go out there and stand a fighting chance, we'll need reinforcements and more ammunition!" she explained.

"If we call and wait for backup, we'll give more chances for Malefor to advance. What we need to do is try to thin out Malefor's army into a more manageable size. Here's what we're going to do, we'll have the dragoons put on flash hiders on their firearms and attach tree branches to camouflage them into the forest. We will have the dragoons camp inside and not have them move until further orders are given. I'll call in a few more railgun salvos which should hopefully soften them up. Fifteen thousand of us, six tanks, three AFV's and three of the dragoons will focus on Malefor. Five hundred will stay here and the rest led by the best of the best will attack Malefor's army. Try to spread out in a way that will eventually surround them, that should give us un an edge. Have the officers relay this to the rest of the units."

Once all of my combatants were informed I had a total of fifty salvos fire from the guns. I spread my wings and looked at Jane "Stay safe." I whispered before I had us charge. As we ran and flew, Malefor laughed.

"Back for more?" He laughed "Excellent! When we're done feasting on you, the birds will still have plenty to eat!" he released a flame wall.

Most of us dodged it, some however, weren't so lucky and were burned to a crisp. "No matter what happens! Keep moving!" I ordered. Apes mounted on dreadwings, grublins and wyverns (from the grublin species) and other flying creatures charged toward us. Riflemen mounted on dragons made quick work of them and we plowed right through. Malefor let out wave after wave of breath weapons which included fire, electricity, ice, earth and what I could only describe as dark matter. Quite a few of us were hit but our courage stood strong and kept going towards him. As we got close enough to fire, he sprung up his bubble shield. That's when the dragoons began firing in controlled bursts. Eventually the shield broke and we could hurt him, every time he put up his shield, it was broken so he stopped. Malefor switched gears and flew right at us, I saw a faint dark glow emanating from his mouth. "Disperse!" I ordered.

We all separated and Malefor let out a dark beam which hit some of my soldiers needless to say, were killed. He then began to spew hundreds of electric bolts at us. I saw an opportunity and took it, for some reason, he always closed his non-blinded eye every time he shot electricity. I dodged the bolts heading toward me and got up close to his face as he stopped using electricity.

"Curse you!" he shouted "I thought you were killed!" he then tried to bite/eat me.

"Not yet!" I said as I barely dodged his jaw. "You look thirsty, how 'bout a drink!" I then shot a highly focused stream of scalding water into his non-blinded eye which fully blinded him for at least a small period of time. Malefor began to breathe fire everywhere. I used that opportunity to find the area I was stabbing into before. At that moment, it started to pour. I eventually found the place and turned to my human form, careful not to slip, I began to get to work. "Forgive me God!" I prayed as I plunged my sword "I must do this!".

Malefor regained his sight and he saw that thousands of the Skyforce were surrounding him. In what I could only call a suicidal attempt, he unleashed a flurry of electrical attacks (which surprisingly, _didn't_ electrocute him or me) which killed at least half of my forces around him. He then followed up with ice breath which turned several of my units frozen solid! Winds were picking up fast, it was so strong that I thought I could have easily been flinged off if I didn't grip my sword tight enough!

As I lined up for another stab I felt a tug on my leg and I was then staring down Malefor's now dwindling army. "I've had enough of you!" Malefor shouted as he dangled me closer to his razor filled maw. "... You're not even a snack!" he grumbled as he began to lower me. I immediately turned to my dragon form and started to claw and shoot my way to freedom but to no avail. As his jaws started to close around my torso, I closed my eyes and waited for my demise. I then heard a howl of pain, his jaws opened and his grip loosened, just enough for me to slip and fly out. What I saw was Malefor's chest and underbelly full of red gashes, it must've been the mechs!

"Fools!" He gasped "You can't kill me! I am eternal! I am god!" he screamed.

Blasphemy! "We'll see about that!" I shouted as I flew to where my sword used to be perched, it must have fallen out. I turned to my human form and began to fire non-stop into his wound with my rifle until I got a transmission.

"Sir! Get back! These should be the last shots." informed Clydesdale commander.

As instructed, I turned to my dragon form and flew back. The barrage that hit Malefor was glorious!

"No!" He began to wheeze his final words "It… can't be… I'm… eternal…" he fell to the ground with an extremely loud thump.

"And stay down!" I demanded as I glided back to the ground. The whole crater that used to be a dragonslayer base was absolutely littered with bodies, it stunk! (Which of course is perfectly natural, but still!) "What a day…" I muttered.

We soon dug a massive hole and buried our dead. I don't think our cemetery was big enough to have that many corpses inside it. Once we were organizing into our battalions (or at least what was left of them) I frantically looked for Jane and the rest. I then heard a very familiar voice from behind "Enoch!" She yelled as she ran to hug me. I turned to my human form and hugged her back as tight as I could without hurting her.

"I thought I would never see you again!" she sobbed.

"So did I…"

The rest eventually found us...well, all except one obviously…

"Where did Jake go?" Asked Stix. We left the bodies (or what was left of them) in the caves where they were.

"A-about him…" I hesitated.

"What? Is he alive? Injured? Dead!?" He panicked.

As I told them all what happened, they all had a pained expression on their face, except for Stix who had an angry one.

"So Jake is…" Maria couldn't finish her sentence.

I mournfully nodded my head.

"You- you son of a b***h!" yelled Stix as he grabbed my collar, pushed me to the ground and began to thrown punches. "Why didn't you do anything!? You've killed our brother! What do you have to say for yourself!?"

"I'm sorry!" I shouted as I did my best to block his punches.

"You're sorry!? 'Sorry' isn't going to bring him back to life!" he screamed.

John managed to pull him off "And neither is pounding his face in!" he countered.

I covered my face to hide any tears escaping from my eyes "No! He's right! I was in charge of the platoon and that meant I was in charge of their lives! I failed! If only I did something, maybe Jake would still be alive!" I sobbed.

Jane intervened "You were in the heat of battle with millions of things going through your head. You couldn't have thought of anything that could have saved his life. Besides, it seems that he already made up his mind..." she reasoned.

"No! He must have killed him! Jake would never have done something like that!" He growled "This is for him!".

My eyes were still covered but I could hear John and the girls saying "Put that down!" and shots firing. When I finally opened my eyes, I saw the trio and some of my men trying to disarm and wrestle him to the ground. A third shot was fired and it zipped inches away from my head!

After they finally took his gun and any other weapon away, I saw John yell at him some more.

"Stix! Have you gone mad!? You could have killed him!" he shouted.

"That's because I WAS trying to kill him!" snapped Stix.

"And if you did!? Who would rule Unitatis Terra!?"

"Jane would. She's the closest thing to a queen, besides, we had plans on ruling this place before all this!"

The soldiers stood him up "... Get out of my sight! Maybe a long walk will clear you of whatever demon that tried to possess you…"

I swear if looks could kill, I AND John would have died. But even so, he did as he was told and started to walk.

John walked up to me and handed a tissue "Here, take this. No man wants to be seen crying, especially in front of friends."

"Thanks…" I wiped off any tears left on my face "You're not mad at me?".

"Mad?" he sighed "No, just disappointed. Disappointed that Jake died in Stix as well. I knew him to have a temper but I never expected him to even try to kill one we saw as one of our own."

"Was he always like this?" I asked.

"Unfortunately… yes. One time he put a kid in the hospital, the poor guy was making fun of his clothes and got hit with a brick. Ended up with a broken nose and cracked skull. He survived but ended up with some major scarring."

"Ouch…"

He nodded "Indeed. He was supposed to be put in prison but our father interceded on his behalf and only did community service with the promise that would take anger management classes. They worked for the most part but in situations like this… I think you know what happens…"

I nodded and took out a red crystal, just in case I had some form of internal bleeding, I broke it.

I walked around a bit and stared into the wasteland.

"This is definitely one for the history books isn't it?" Asked Jane as she stood next to me.

"Looks like…" I chuckled.

"... How are you holding up about all this?" she asked.

"Well… I don't know, I mean, so many of us died, Including Jake; all those lives, I was ultimately responsible for. I just hope this is the first and last battle with mass casualties, I don't think I can deal with another blow like that." I explained.

"Hey, this is war remember? Things aren't always going to go your way, especially in a massive battle like this. When they signed up, they fully knew the risks and they took the chance. Things may look grim now but the important thing is that we learn from this and move on. Cheer up, I promise, things will get better eventually." she comforted.

I smiled and we began to hug each other. We embraced each other for what felt like a minute until I heard her gasp.

"Watch out!" she cried as she pushed me to the side. A sword belonging to a fallen ape was driven repeatedly through her from the back. The killer? Stix!

"No!" I shouted and caught her body as my men began to restrain him. Stix seemed to have come to his senses because he soon dropped the blade and sunk to his knees.

"Oh no…" he looked at his hands "What have I done!?" he cried and then looked at me. "You did this! You made me do this!" he shouted "If you hadn't killed Jake, none of this would have happened!" Stix attempted to grab the sword but was knocked out with a punch to the side of his head.

"I need a medic!" I cried "Jane! Jane! Respond!... Say something!" I put my ear to her chest but there was no heartbeat "Please…" I begged, but it was no use. She was gone. "Lord!" I shouted to the heavens "Why her!? Why now!?" I cried.

When we came back to New Warfang, Stix was put in prison for murder and assault on royalty. He was given the life sentence as I even if he tried to kill me and killed Jane instead, I still couldn't have him put to death. Jane was given a proper burial and I renamed that crater "The Crater of souls". It was just I, John and Maria left. Azureth and Brutus were KIA as well. Spyro and Cynder didn't partake in the battle as they were taking care of their eggs. I felt alone and empty once more.


	29. Chapter 29

After the burial I gathered two gallon's worth of water bottles and locked myself in my room. For days! I ate absolutely nothing, not even crumbs! I just drank water when I needed to. I was angry with God, furious even! Why would he allow the slaughter of innocent lives, why would he allow all those casualties, why would he allow my precious Jane to be taken away from me! I argued and argued with him, day in and day out! "My god!" I shouted "Why have you forsaken me! My God! Why have you forsaken your servant!".

I went on violent rampages throughout my room. Flinging furniture across it, screaming and punching my wall until my knuckles bled and cried myself to sleep. Sometimes I couldn't even sleep though, no matter what I tried. I believe it was God trying to talk to me just as he did with the prophet Samuel, but whatever he said, I didn't listen, no matter how soothing and heavenly it felt. Multiple times I tried to take my own life by either slashing my wrists, drowning or shooting myself but every time I backed out at the last moment and I ended up cutting a less vital part and bullet holes in the walls.

Until one night I had a dream, or maybe I should say vision. I saw myself in the kitchen with some friends and I could tell at least ten years had passed, I was much taller and I looked stronger I had a full black mustache and a deeper voice. By my left side was Jane who was obviously older and much prettier, Spyro, Cynder, some soldiers that I recognized and by my right side was a yellow dragon who kept calling me "dad". What caught me off-guard was that besides Jane, the siblings were nowhere to be found. We all held our glasses full of sparkling apple cider and I began to speak.

"Here's to another ten years of peace! Cheers!" we clinked our glasses and downed our drinks. A few minutes later as we were talking I grabbed my chest and started to foam at the mouth. AS the rest called an ambulance and desperately began to break red crystals, Jane did minimal things to help me and whispered in my ear. When she was done, I slowly began to look at her with near bulging eyes and my head slammed against the table, I was , the yellow dragon began to have the same symptoms and tragically died the same way. The scene began to quickly go backwards and I was put in a different point of view, I was looking at Jane who was pouring the cider. When she filled the last two glasses she added something extra, a clear liquid from a glass vial that she pulled from her shirt. He poured one fourth into one and the rest into the other, placed the glasses on a cart and began to serve us.

I then heard a voice coming from nowhere with the vision fading into the darkness. "Now you see the reason? Now you see why I took her from you?". I looked up to see who I could only describe as the Son of Man, this was Jesus himself who was talking to me, in all his glory (literally, his entire body was shrouded in his glory but I couldn't see his face).

After a pause of silence, Jesus began to speak "Gabriel, make him understand the vision" he commanded.

An incredibly tall angel began to descend, having heavenly features and red-ish skin. "If Jane were to have lived, you would have eventually gotten married but soon, she would have adopted another lover and have a secret affair with him. Due to past events, she would have grown to hate you and despise that yellow dragon because of how you treated him. You also declared him as an heir to the throne. She killed the forming child and slept with another man. Eventually, that even was to take place and with you gone, she would still be queen, married the man and give birth to a boy. They would eventually bring an end to the empire of Unitatis Terra due to neighboring kingdoms and mistreatment of your people."

I was dumbstruck "Now, wake up" said Jesus "But don't speak of this to anyone, not even your own son."

"My son…? Wait! I have que-" I woke up to my alarm at 7 in the morning to a disaster of a room. I cleaned as best I could and I finally went outside my room. I could barely stand though, my legs were trembling and I couldn't lift my arm without putting more effort into it. I managed to walk down the stairs and sat on the couch and pondered about my vision _Would Jane really have done that? Could that yellow dragon be my future son? How!? We're not even the same species!_ _Originally anyway…_

"Well, well, looks like someone is done with having a temper tantrum." Stated John.

I looked behind me and saw him descending the stairs.

"You… do know that Jane and I were dating right? That and I feel responsible for the lives lost so that doubles my pain"

John sighed and sat by me "Listen, I feel what you're going through, somewhat. Quite a few of my guys died and two of my siblings also met their doom. Of course I'm no hillbilly so I obviously wasn't dating Jane."

"Your point being…?"

"Each and every one of us volunteered, knowing the risks but even so, we went into battle. You can't control what happens in battle or any other surprises you may encounter. It's okay to mourn, just don't let it take over your life alright?"

"I'll try…"

"Good man, anyway, let's get some food in you, you must be starving, literally."

I chuckled "Hey, where'd Maria go?" I asked.

"Oh, she went to the base to train the female soldiers. While you were screaming your head off, we were training the troops on occasion but I think it's safe to say that their morale's gone down. Not only because of the battle but because you're not there with them."

"Maybe I'll pay them a visit after eating."

"You better. Anyway, I'll hop in the kitchen and cook up something. You just stay here and relax, I'll call when done."

After waiting for about thirty minutes I gorged on a giant burrito filled with steak, rice, guacamole and the rest of the good stuff. I broke a few red and green crystals and felt like a new me. As I was about to open the door, I heard a loud bang and the slayer alarm, we were attacked when at our weakest.


	30. Chapter 30

Chapter 30

After hearing the alarm I immediately ran to the control panel and hit the mic button.

"People of New Warfang! Stop whatever you're doing and head to the bunkers! This is not a drill, I repeat, this is not a drill! All available combatants: Battle stations!"

My men were ready to give their lives to defend the beloved capital. I hit a button on the panel and the wall began to layer itself. Remember those buttons I mentioned way back? Yeah, some of those were made specifically for the wall and I only discovered that a few months back via accident, it caused no fatalities but… boy, were my generals mad at me…

The skymen began to go into specified entrances inside the wall and took their place. Each layer had a full line of miniguns ready to demolish the scum of the realms, four full layers of them. (I secretly liked to call it "Pastel de cuatro muertes" or "Four death cake" in Spanish) I began to speak to one of my generals via my radio "Alright, report." I demanded.

"The enemy is attacking the South wall as we speak, and there seems to be only infantry, nothing else. The men are currently repelling the slayers."

"Excellent. Have some soldiers guard the other sides just in case they try to surround us. Have the Dragoons and Alphas on standby if they somehow break through the wall."

"Roger that."

I turned to my dragon form and flew to the south wall and saw Maria.

"How goes the fighting? Any casualties?"

"Not at the moment, thankfully, but as always they're sending massive waves of infantry. Morning, by the way."

"Morning. This is off to a rough start, eh? I mean, we did receive quite a few casualties about a week ago."

"You're taking this awfully well," she commented.

"Well, we've dealt with these guys before. They always go with the same boring 'tactic', try to overwhelm their enemy with giant waves with barely any artillery, if any." I laughed "It's like they want to die, all they do is try to shoot us, get mowed down by machine guns and other slayers follow the example. It's like they never had any training."

"Yeah, it's like they weren't even trained on how to use a knife properly."

I find it funny. At first, I have to admit that we were scared of our adversary but after the few battles we had, we obliterate them! When we're defending anyway. As if the MG's weren't enough, the railguns literally blew holes into their formations. If they managed to fight through that and got closer, I hope they like the taste of a spear in their mouth. Shooting them was actually fun, I saw them nothing more than moving targets so you can probably imagine the thrill I had when cutting them down. (At least that was before I knew the truth…) With my hatred for them, I had no problem taking "human" lives. Several magazines later, they were all retreating which I found as odd as they usually died for a few more hours.

"Cease fire!" I shouted "There's something off in their demeanor. Keep your eyes peeled!"

After what felt like five minutes of birds chirping, I saw giant boulders heading toward us _Haven't seen those in a while_ "Stand fast soldiers!"

We endured volley after volley, ten in total. Most of us survived the hurls but some were unfortunately crushed to death, along with some of the rail guns and gunners. I heard warcries once more and slayers began to emerge out of the forest. Once the surviving railguns calculated the position of the catapults, they immediately fired at will. While they were done for, I couldn't say the same thing for our precious wall. The force that came out was even larger than the last one, most carried grappling hooks as well. Barrage after barrage of bullets was released on them but even then, some survived and began to flood in the holes. We kept fighting the good fight but I eventually called my men to retreat into the city as the wall was taken over, inside and topside.

Even though I've given the order to retreat, some soldiers remained on the wall and while they fought courageously, most of them were surrounded and either shot dead or run through with a sword or bayonet. It was a horrible sight.

John came up to me "So what's the plan, dude?"

"We fight until our final breath. The slayers will all either retreat or die trying."

He nodded and relayed the order behind cover which was the window of a small house that had been demolished.

I looked at my bayonet and grinned at the horde of slayers. I let out my war cry and ran into the mass, guns blazing. Once I spent all my current ammo in my rifle and pistol magazines, I charged and thrust my bayonet into a cocky slayer's exposed chest. I had trouble dislodging the blade, which allowed another slayer to take a mace swing at me. At first, I heard several bones crunch and break in my right arm, it went limp. I took my remaining hand off of the grip and punched the slayer in the face with all my might with my trench knife (which had the knuckle duster grip). He fell on the ground with a bloody nose looking at me, immediately regretting attacking me, he was staring at one of the most brutal and merciless fighters he ever met. I didn't let up, I began to stab him several times in his upper chest until I knew he was dead.

The adrenaline wore off and I felt immense pain not only from my arm but from a few stray bullets that hit my legs and side. I howled in pain as I grabbed my bleeding and most likely fractured limb.

"You idiot!" I heard Spyro call out as he got in front of me with wings spread, he began to move backward. I didn't though, I suppose it was mostly from shock. "You can't just charge like that and expect **not** to be injured!" He barked.

I then felt something grab me under my armpits and drag me while Spyro continued to move. As soon as we were in cover, I was feeling light-headed and a bit tired. "Maria!" I heard Spyro shout "Break a red crystal NOW! I'm no medic but I'm pretty sure a human isn't supposed to bleed that much and stay alive."

I heard the sound of a crystalline fracture and I was wide awake with my injury healed and arm no longer limp. "Why would you do something like that? You're never this reckless! You always tell us to get backup when going into a storm. Why would you go against it?"

"Let me back out there!" I growled.

"So you can get hit like that? No way!"

"As your king, I demand you to-"

"Well, I don't care what you order me to do! Take me to court, sue me, I don't care what you do!" She sobbed "I've already lost several loved ones because of this war! I don't want to lose another!" she tightly hugged me.

"You don't think I've lost people too?" I asked "Before they invaded Warfang, I had many more friends other than Spyro and Cynder. My attempts were rendered useless as I witnessed the cruel and merciless deaths of them. They have taken away my home, my friends and the one I would have proudly called my father if the slayers didn't invade! If they take New Warfang, who knows what else they'll take from not only me, or you, but the rest of my people!"

Her grasp loosened. I gently pushed her away, said a silent prayer and walked towards the maelstrom. A spear flew right towards me as if in slow motion, I calmly sidestepped to the right and caught the shaft. I heard Maria and Spyro's cries for me to come back but I ignored them. "As king David said 'Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil;l for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.'" I jumped over a slayer's cover and plunged the spear right into him. He dropped what looked like a cricket bat with obsidian chunks on its side; it was a macuahuitl. I swung it ferociously at a slayer's back ankle, rupturing his tendons. I fought like a beast with that thing, which was perhaps because of my Mayan descent. I fought with the top-heavy "sword" with elegance, like a deadly ballerina cleaving through his enemies in half with one chop. By the time the obsidian blades were completely shattered and rendered useless, I and the paddle were completely covered in slayer blood. I discarded the thing and grabbed a slayer's rifle and remembered that I had a special tool waiting for me in the hangars which could tip the battle even more in our favor. I shot, grappled and stabbed my way to the hangars in which the gates were closed.

I opened the gates just enough to squeeze in and saw the place crawling with slayers, dead bodies and several destroyed dragoons which also included mine. I hid behind one of the destroyed machines and radioed for backup.

"The hangars?" a commander asked, "we just sent a company to aid defense ten minutes ago."

I took a second look at the bodies, which were my men. "I don't think they lasted long…" in a whisper.

I heard him curse three times.

"Language!" I whisper yelled.

He sighed "I'll send two battalions there as soon as possible, hopefully, it'll be enough to retake them. Have they taken any dragoons?"

"Not as far as I know. For the most part, they've destroyed them."

"Great… Listen, with all these slayers running around, it's going to take a bit. Hold on a bit longer my young liege."

I didn't want to risk getting shot by salvaging some ammo, I already took huge risks coming over to the hangars itself! So I just patiently waited and took a look at what I had. I had a knife and a dullened sword, not good at all.

"Where is that boy!?" I heard someone shout.

"How should I know? You and your team are in charge of killing any Skyman who dares come in!"

"I tried to! I pulled the trigger but nothing came out!"

"What do you mean 'nothing came out'!?"

"I mean my gun wouldn't fire. He's just a boy though, what damage could he possibly do?"

"What damage? What damage!? He's killed hundreds of us, maybe thousands! You better get your s**t together because if you don't, the boss will have your head! I'm not joking! He had my friend executed for something as stupid as dropping coffee on his lap!"

"But what is it about this person?"

"I don't know. It's like he's protected by something so… I don't know, now get back to work!"

 _I didn't_ _think I was that fearsome_ I thought.

After waiting for what felt like ten minutes just sitting there, I saw the hangar gates start to open and several items were thrown in. I turned away and heard the bang. A wall of dragon wings began to emerge, extending to both sides, eventually reaching me. I got into the formation and a soldier noticed me.

"Where were you this whole time?" He asked

"Oh you know, killing slayers, the usual".

The battle in the hangar raged for around thirty minutes, we shot everyone inside that wasn't one of us. Unfortunately, after the fight, only two dragoons were fully operable. The rest were reduced to scrap metal, but even so, some pilots went inside and fought like lions. The slayers tried to retreat but to their dismay, we took no prisoners, we killed every single one we could see.

Once the battle was over, it was near the end of the day and while the bodies were being disposed of, either buried. I decided to relax by watching the sunset on the wall.

"Glad to see you're alive," Said Spyro as he flew down to meet me.

"Likewise, my friend. Where's Cynder by the way?"

"She's at home now. Once they breached, Cynder took the eggs into the bunker along with herself. If I were to be KIA, at least the kids would have a mother's love."

I nodded, while just a mother's love isn't the same as both parents, at least Cynder would have done her best to raise them.

"But don't get any ideas, just because I fought. Until the eggs are hatched, we won't be fighting any time soon unless it's defending New Warfang like today. And even when the hatchlings come out of their eggs, we'll have ourselves put on reserves at the very least."

While disappointed, I nodded. "Understandable. You're a dad now and you have to be there for your kids as much as possible. I was abandoned by my dad before… it wasn't fun…"

Spyro gave me a sympathetic look "I'm sorry Enoch, but, hey, you came out as a decent human being, that must mean that your mom really ca-"

"Must I remind you that she almost had me killed?"

"That wasn't her fault" He countered "She panicked, all she saw as a dragon and no boy, she must have put two and two together and thought that a beast ate her child. Now she's without one… maybe one day you can visit her and explain what happened that morning. Spend some time together and maybe present her to the kingdom"

I chuckled "She did always want me to "Be someone" even though I wasn't humanity's number one fan."

"Well, you're someone, alright. She'll be proud."

"Maybe I **will** visit her when all of this is over…"

A few months later, I did something that not only made me proud but my mom would be even prouder; I finally discovered what it meant to be a dad… Wait, that came out weird! Let me explain!

Update: Well, I would have uploaded this chapter much sooner but things were happening and I ended up writing the chapter after this on paper. School's been a pain in the neck lately when it came to writing time so sorry for the delay. I'll try my best to upload 31 ASAP, although don't expect it to be like in the next day or so. It takes a bit of time in my writing and uploading style.


	31. Chapter 31

It was somewhat peaceful after New Warfang's second attack, there was no third one on the city or anything of the sort. We recovered somewhat quickly, one dragoon took four to six days to repair and about ten to rebuild one. Our one Alpha wasn't even touched, which was most likely because we store those things underground. It was a pretty big worry as they take at least a month to build and require a lot of hard work and effort, don't even get me started on picking a pilot and their training! The walls and railguns combined took about two weeks to repair, so our process was pretty quick for the military side. As for the civilians, not too many important buildings were knocked down but quite a few houses were destroyed, again, all repaired and rebuilt though.

I was lying on the couch watching the news, no idea why; I barely watch the news in the first place. The talking news woman's voice was about to put me asleep in my comfy furniture until I heard her say this:

"Despite Enoch having sent several squads into the forests, there has been more and more slayer attacks in many towns and homes. If there are any children with you, I ask you to avert their eyes or send them to another room as these pictures are gruesome." After that, several stomach-wrenching images popped on the screen, some showing decapitated dragons, others corpses with their stomach slashed open, others with their guts leaking out… I turned off the TV and went to throw up for what felt like a minute, the back of my throat was on fire!

"What's wrong?" Asked Maria after I flushed.

I washed my mouth with water and gasped for breath "Something in the TV didn't sit right with me…" I said bitterly "I'm going hunting." I said as I went into the house armory. I came out with my usual load-out.

"With all those weapons and kevlar?" She asked "You can't fool me. Your off to find slayers, aren't you?"

"So?"

"So I'm going with you."

"No, you're not. This is my war, not y-"

"Don't give me that crap! You're going to need at least some form of backup if things get ugly."

 _And knowing the slayers, it_ _ **will**_ I sighed "Fine… Just hurry up."

A few minutes later she came out with a designated marksman rifle and the rest of her equipment. "Ready!" She informed.

I turned into my dragon form and we rode out of New Warfang. "So" Started Maria "Where to?"

I looked at the map beforehand but packed it in my backpack "Northwest. There's a mountain range, a lake and like pretty much everywhere else, a forest."

"We should really have a few acres of trees chopped down. Don't get me wrong, I like the forest but don't you think it gets in the way sometimes?"

"Well, I suppose having more lumber couldn't hurt as long as we don't overdo it; it may make our roads a bit clearer."

We have quite the selection of cars but not many people use them (excluding the military), it's very rare that you would see someone in an SUV or something like that. Most of the time people prefer horseback or if they're a dragon, fly everywhere.

I flew for a bit more until Maria asked me this.  
"How are you holding up?"

"What do you mean?"

Well, we've been through quite a few battles, casualties and my sister dying. It's a wonder you haven't gone crazy or anything like that."

I remembered my vision and sighed, "It's still hard to even think that all of that happened. I'm still trying to get over the facts but hey, we're still strong as ever with an even stronger faith which keeps us unified and very much disciplined. I thank God for every single day that he's given us. I know with his guidance, I and my descendants will bring this empire into fruition and into a kingdom The Most High can be proud of."

"You really think so, eh?"

"I know so."

"So, what about your dad?"

"...what about him?..." I grimaced.

"You never told any of us much about him, if at all."

"It's not very interesting. As far as I know, my mom was already married to someone else but she slept with another man. The first kid was lost due to stress, or at least that's what I thought, but the second kid, aka, me, was born out of wedlock. Basically right after I was born, he left until about four or five years later when my mom was divorced. He didn't ask for her hand in marriage or anything to make things right, instead, he just wanted to see me and could care less for her. He never came back after that, not even once. He left my mom in so much sadness and pain that I can't even explain, working late hours into the night with companies that didn't pay her much and could barely keep up with the bills. She could never find the right lover who she could marry and, while she didn't show it, spiraled into depression… _Now I feel guilty about leaving her..._ One thing's for sure, if I ever become a father, I'm never going to be like that idiot."

"And what will you do if you ever meet him again?"

"Probably punch his face in so hard that I break his nose. Maybe worse."

"You wouldn't be happy at all?"

"But he's your family, your dad"

"Not to me, he isn't. That man is dead to me!"

We reached the mountain range, the Tun-Lung mountains (what a silly name) and walked for thirty minutes, talking about each other's families (Didn't have much to say about my family anyway) until we got near a cabin in the woods.

Maria took out her binoculars "There seems to be a family of three dragons living inside. It looks like they're having a nice family meal."

"I know Maria. Dragon vision, remember?" I could smell the meal up to where we were "Roast turkey and chicken made with the best spices this area has to offer, along with the side of some mashed potatoes. Very little of it compared to the meat." I sighed while my stomach was giving me the old grumblies "We'll wait here and watch them." I turned to my human form and pullet out an MRE, filled in the heating bag with water and just waited. I took the time to check my weapon and strip it down to see if there was anything that would stop my gun. When I smelled my food I took it out and almost began to eat, but Maria was eyeing my food.

"You forgot to pack your own, didn't you?" I sighed.

She nodded slowly "Here, hope you like tortellini." I said as I gave her my pasta. "I'll just settle for a protein bar."

"A-are you sure?" she asked.

I nodded, "A general must do what is best for his soldiers, even if it means sacrificing something."

I bit into the bar, it was horrible. At first, I got a chocolate like-taste but as I continued to chew, it started to feel like sand in my mouth. It cured my hunger but I was low-key mad at Maria. I checked my weapons over and over again to pass the time, timing myself how long it took to field strip and put my Steyr and Glock back together. My quickest time was about one minute and three seconds. We waited, and waited and waited some more until the sun began to set.

"Maybe the slayers aren't coming?"

"Maybe… it looks like these three dragons live another day. Why don't they all live within New Warfang or any other walled city? It's a safe haven."

"That's probably why, Enoch. They probably do want to live in New Warfang but since it's like you said, a safe haven, it can get crowded every now and then."

"Yeah.. you're probably right. What am I supposed to do though? I can't just say 'We're getting overpopulated so scram to another city if you can'?"

"I'm sure you'll figure something out. Let's go. I'm pretty sure John's also getting worried"

We began to fly back to New Warfang until I heard a scream. I looked back and saw one slayer outside and the window we saw the family in was splattered with blood. "They're here!" I shouted as I flew back.

"I'll support you from range, you go inside!" ordered Maria as she jumped off my back to the mountain we were before.

It wasn't her place to order me around but I did like getting up close and personal. As I neared the house, the slayer noticed me and was about to call for his buddies inside but was shot in the face. I was too late, two adult dragons already laid dead on the ground, one with a savage gash on his neck, the other, killed in a similar fashion and eyes were gouged out. The only one that was left alive was a small hatchling with yellow scales and white horns but five slayers quickly approached him.

"Hey!" I shouted.

"Ooh, we got a tough guy here. Boys, show him what we do to 'people' like him!" Shouted who was most likely a squad leader.

Four of them ran at me while he kept approaching the kid "Get away from him!" I shouted while he began to shoot pitiful sparks of electricity. I charged and skewered a slayer with my horns, I then threw the corpse into the rest. I was charging to their squad leader but I felt a push come from my side which threw me off course, it was the rest. "I'll rip you limb from limb!" I warned. Unphased, the slayers swung their maces, and I wasn't bluffing. I grabbed each of their arms with my claws and tail, I pulled them with extraordinary force and like I warned them, literally ripped their arms from their sockets. I shot a stream at one slayer which blew a hole right through him, I jabbed my tail spike into another and pounced on the third one who I stabbed my claws into his throat.

The squad leader looked at me and grinned while choking the kid, the hatchling desperately clawing and kicking at him, but he remained unphased. "Impressive. Most impressive. If you were human and someone else, I would have run away but you are a lowly dragon. I'll finish you off myself, it's not like I needed them. I'll crush you like a bug!" He threw the hatchling at the wall while he grabbed his own mace which had an ax-blade at the back.

"Interesting weapon… doesn't that seem a bit top-heavy for you?"

"It is. But it gives me the strength to kill dragons like you! So as long as I have this, I will exterminate all of your species! In the name of our lord Saint George!" He rose his mace high up in the air, telegraphing his next movement. Instead, however, he threw a plate at me which I blocked with my wings. I was about to give him a "seriously?" look until I then saw his mace come down which I parried but felt a sharp pain. I jumped back six feet away and checked my wounds, two rows of six bleeding holes. Because of the adrenaline, I couldn't feel much so I shot a steaming water ball at his face to at least temporarily blind him, while he was rubbing his eyes I turned into my human form and put six assault rifle shots in his chest. He fell to the ground, although still not dead, so I took my knife and raised his head up to face me before I jabbed the knife in his neck.

I stood up and grabbed my radio "Come in Maria."

"This is Maria, how copy?"

"Copy 10-10. Slayers are wasted, it should be safe to come down."

"Roger that, coming down."

I sighed and then felt a pain in my back, I wasn't bleeding but my wounds definitely affected me. Forgetting about the hatchling, I fell to my knees and immediately broke a red crystal, the shards began to seep into my back and completely relieved my pain. It was at that moment that I remembered the dragon. The poor thing was petrified, but I stood and took one step; he began to charge a lightning bolt. "Don't come any closer!"

I rose my hands above my head and took a step backward, showing my best that I'm not a threat. "Don't be afraid little one."

It began to eye my weapons, so I gently took them off and placed them far away from me, to the very corner of the house. He began to slowly reduce his lightning to nothing.

"I'm not here to harm you, young dragon. On the contrary, I came to help, unfortunately, it was too late."

He put his head down, in complete sadness.

"Are you hurt, young one?"

"Not really… but my neck really hurts."

I took out a red crystal and rolled it to him "Here. This should make it all better"

He copied what I did and shattered it on the ground, the shards going into his neck.

"Better?"

He nodded.

"I can't just call you 'little one' or 'young dragon' so, what's your name?"

"S-Seiya."

Seiya looked to the two dragons and so did I, I really wish I came earlier to save them too.

"Mommy!" He ran to a yellow dragon and with tears running down his face, he rubbed his face against hers. I could hear him whisper "Please, wake up…"

"I'm here! What's the- oh… oh no…" Maria stopped.

I sighed and walked outside to dig a large hole with my entrenching tool.

Maria began to help me by using her own "If only we stayed a little longer, if only we didn't fly away. Maybe then we could have been able the hatchling and his parents!"

"His name is Seiya. Don't blame yourself, it was my fault alone. They probably saw us and camped until we left. If only we searched around the place, maybe we would have prevented this but that's not what happened. The past is in the past and we have to learn from this. In about an hour and a half we finished digging, and when I walked into the cabin, Seiya was with a white scaled dragon, nuzzling him all the same.

"Listen, Seiya, I don't want to seem insensitive but we have to bury these bodies, or else, they'll cause more harm than good," I explained.

"J-just a few more minutes, mister…"

"Alright. Five more minutes." I sighed. "Lord," I prayed "Why would you let this happen? He's done nothing to deserve this and yet, you've taken his family away, no one to comfort him!" I continued to talk to God for five more minutes. I opened my eyes and saw Maria stare into the forest, I guess she was on the lookout for any more slayers, afterward, I walked into the cabin to see Seiya sitting in the middle of the room, he nodded. I turned into my dragon form and began to drag both dragons, little by little and arranged them in a way where it looked like they were nuzzling each other.

"Goodbye mommy and daddy…" Seiya pitifully sighed, it wrenched my heart to hear him say that.

We had thirty minutes of silence but during that time, I kept praying and praying for God to give me wisdom in my next decision. After the thirty, I asked Seiya if he had any relatives and he said he did "My uncle lives in New Warfang. Hopefully, I can live with him."

"What's his name?"

"Arialdrace. It was originally Aetheldrace but since he was so good at flying, he changed his name."

"Arialdrace...Arialdrace… why do I know that name?"

"He also told us he was in the military"

It then hit me. He was one of the dragons that died in the slayer's breach. How was I supposed to break the news, the kid just lost his parents!

"Well, Seiya, I bet your uncle would love to let you live with him but… I'm pretty sure he's asleep right now."

"We could just wake him up, it's not a big deal."

"No, Seiya, you don't understand… your uncle is…" I was about to sugar coat it but Maria beat me to it.

"He's dead" In such a callous manner!

"W-w-what?"

"I'm sorry Seiya. But when the dragonslayers broke through the wall, not many of our soldiers died but… your uncle was one of them…"

He began to cry again. "So where will I go?" snot was started to come out of his nose. I looked for anything he can use to blow and found nothing but the rag I used to wipe down my gun and polish my sword, it wasn't much but it was something.

"Here. Blow on this" I gave him the rag, I don't think I was gonna use it after dragon snot was on it.

"We can probably put you in an adoption home. We can't take you in." She again said coldly.

"Maria!" I snapped "We'll be back Seiya, the two of us are going to talk inside the cabin."

"What?" she said after we got inside

"You can't just **lie** to a kid like that! And in such a tone! What do you mean 'we can't take you in'!? You may not understand because you still have your parents to fall back to if everything goes wrong. But I relate to him! Just like Seiya, I'm without anyone I can fall back to, I don't have my parents or anyone else I see as a parental figure. I don't have anyone to lean on but at the very least, I can offer my assistance and take care of him like a parent."

"Dude, you're sixteen. You're not capable of raising a kid, you don't have the skills. If we put him in an adoption home, he has a chance of being with a wonderful family and we won't have to carry the burden. I also don't want a hatchling running around the house"

"Excuse me? First of all, that is **my** house, you don't get a say in the matter. If you don't like it, you can move out, simple as that. Second, what if he's not adopted? He looks to be around six or seven years old, people tend to adopt when they're babies or extremely young, and if he is adopted, there's a chance he won't be taken care of. They'll probably use the money they get from fostering for themselves and not on Seiya and third of all, how dare you. I probably know more about kid raising then you, besides he's not going to be too much to handle because as I said before, he's around six years old. Much easier than a toddler or new-born, err, hatched in this case. If I take him in, there'll be a hundred percent chance he'll be adopted, cared for, at least by me, go to school, I am more than willing to spend my time with him. If I leave him in an adoption center, I will regret it for the rest of my days, so I will take him in and you're not going to change my mind. End of Story."

I took a few deep breaths and walked out "Sorry about that Seiya. Ignore what my friend just said. I can take you in if you want."

He looked up to me "Really? A- are you sure?"

I nodded "I'm more than sure, Seiya."

"I don't want to be a… what's that word again? An annoyance? Someone or something that makes you angry?"

"A burden? No, no. You won't be a burden, I'm more than sure that you will be a pleasure."

"Pleasure?" he asked.

"Something or someone that makes people happy."

Seiya looked at the graves and then closed his eyes.

"Well, what'll it be?"

"Enoch." Maria interrupted "We really should get going soon. It's getting dark."

"In a moment, Maria."

"Wait." Said Seiya "What did she call you?"

"She called me by my name, Enoch."

"A- as in the king?"

I nodded "Now, I ask you again Seiya, would you like to come with me or have me bring you to an adoption home?"

He looked up at me "May I go with you?"

I smiled and nodded "Of course you can. Now let me ask you another thing. Can you fly for a long time?"

"Kind of. Maybe for thirty minutes?"

I nodded "Tell me when you get tired. I'll let you rest on my back until you can fly again."

"Okay." He said.

We began to fly a few minutes after Seiya said his final goodbyes.

"So…" Seiya started about fifteen minutes in our flight "Are you and Maria… umm… boyfriend and girlfriend?"

"What?" I laughed "No, no, no, no. We're just friends… who live in the same house with her brother. They're really just living with me without paying any money. It's called freeloading which is not really liked."

"So, would I be a freeloader then?" Asked Seiya

"No, if I wanted you to pay me for living in my house, I would have already said so, but I have a heart unlike some people and I'm letting you live with me for free."

"Hey, you offered us rooms for free too, you never told us to pay you anything. Don't go complaining that we're not paying rent." countered Maria… she had a point.

After an hour of flying, we finally arrived, if this was the old New Warfang with no lights, it would have been hard to maneuver, but thankfully it wasn't.

We arrived at the house and to a worried John as well, who gave a strange look when I arrived with a sleeping hatchling on my back. "Hey, buddy." I tapped Seiya's head to wake him up, to which he did with a loud yawn.

"Are we there yet?" He asked drowsily.

"Yup. Let me show you the rooms we have. Choose whichever room you like, as long as it's not being used that is."

"Enoch." John started "Can I talk to you?"

"After I get Seiya to the room of his choice, alright?"

John nodded.

After I gave him a small tour of what I had to offer, he chose a large room with a nice queen size bed and white carpet in the corner of the house.

"I'm sure your extremely tired, Seiya. Get some sleep, alright?"

Seiya nodded and went inside.

John sighed "Two things, why were you two gone so long, and why did you bring a hatchling home?"

"I saw on the news that the slayers were around the city and I decided to go hunting. I didn't want Maria to come, but she came anyway."

"Dude, the army's in charge of finding and killing the slayers. You don't have to go exploring and look for trouble. For the kingdom's sake, at least tell me where you're going so I can have a squad escort you. Now, about the dragon."

I began to explain every detail so that he didn't miss anything, why we waited so long and the aftermath. His face contorted from worry, into anger, then sympathy. "You did a good thing, Enoch. If you didn't leave, that poor thing would be a goner. But, did you ever think if he would stay here for life?" he asked.

"And? What's wrong with that. Yeah, it's another mouth to feed, but we've dealt with appetites of five people and a few dragons that came to visit, including Spyro and Cynder. It think we can handle one hatchling, besides, I have no plans of abandoning him, no matter what. If anyone even tries to hurt him, they'll have to go through me."

"Alright, Alright. I can see you're serious about this, I just wanted to make sure what you're getting into."

In that month I enrolled him in the closest good school (which was about fifteen minutes away) free of charge (The principal insisted that I shouldn't pay). Everyone was pretty nice to him, except maybe Maria. For some reason, she had some sort of resentment against him, of course, when I was with him, she immediately stopped. He really didn't know what to call me but eventually, he began to just call me "dad"; and to make sure no one would even try to attack him emotionally or physically, I made an announcement, declaring Seiya, as my own son.


	32. Chapter 32

"Dad?" I head Seiya's voice "Dad. Wake up."

"Mmm…. five more minutes…." I murmured

"Wake up. Wake up. Wake up!" I felt something jumping on my upper body.

"Seiya!" I woke up and coughed "What are you doing?"

He looked at me "Trying to wake you up." He responded as he got off.

"Well, I'm up now… You know you could have knocked, bud."

"I did knock, at least a thousand times."

"A thousand?... really?"

"I knocked a lot of times, okay?"

I sighed and stood up "Wait, how'd you get in my room in the first place?"

"The door opened a bit on my last knock, so I let myself in."

 _That's weird… I usually keep that locked…_ I thought, "Well, you ready for school?"

"Yeah, but it's seven-thirty. I'm still waiting for my breakfast so I can brush my teeth."

"Why didn't you eat cereal?" I asked.

"That gets boring quick. I want something cooked by you."

"Alright, I have an idea. Give me a few minutes." I walked downstairs and went into the kitchen to crack a few eggs. The next thing I knew was that I was serving Seiya a frittata with turkey bacon and freshly squeezed orange juice. "Enjoy, my son."

Seiya said grace and began to eat. While he may not be my son by blood, I love him as if he is. Sure, I may have been a teenager, that doesn't mean I can learn how to be a good father...unlike my own… After he finished his plate and gave it to me to wash, he tried to go up the stairs until I heard Maria complain again.

"Ow! Watch it, runt!" She shouted.

"Sorry Maria, I wasn't looking where I was going and-"

"Don't you even _dare_ address me!"

I growled and stepped outside "What's going on!?" I shouted.

"He ran into me so I was going to teach him a lesson." She was holding a glass vase!

"Maria, he said sorry. There's no need to get violent, he was just going to brush his teeth and accidentally bumped into you, no harm done. Now, accept his apology or get out." I demanded

Maria put the vase back down on its table and walked down the stairs without saying another word and slammed the front door. Seiya then looked at me "She didn't hurt you, right?" I asked.

He shook his head "Alright, you're okay then, go ahead and brush your teeth." after he went upstairs I slumped on the sofa and sighed. _Why is she so mean to him? He never did anything to deserve such treatment… could she be…? No, no she can't be. I refuse to believe it. Maybe she's just stressed about something… Why did she seem so defensive when I told her that I was bringing him in the first place, it couldn't have been just because of my age, there has to be something else…_ I began to think to myself for a few more minutes until Seiya came downstairs with his bag.

We went out flying to his school accompanied by a nice, cool breeze.

"Dad?" He asked.

"Yes, Seiya?"

"Why is Maria mean to me? Didn't she help you save me in the first place?"

I sighed "I don't know… she's never acted like this before, at least, not in a while." I touched my chest "Women are complicated sometimes but don't worry, I'll give her a warning and if she does something like that again, she is out the door and off to find her own place.

Seiya sorrowfully nodded but tears began to form "Hey, hey, hey, don't cry" I comforted "It'll be alright, everything's going to get better, I can promise you that. For this is the day that The Lord has made, let's be happy in it, okay? Today is a new day and God has many good things for us planned already. So don't worry about it."

He began to dry his tears "You have friends in school, don't you?"

"A few…"

"Well, a few is better than none and John likes you doesn't he? Is he nice to you?"

"Yeah.."

"And Spyro and Cynder are nice to you too, right?"

"Yeah."

"So don't worry about Maria, who cares if she likes you or not, many people are there for you and will comfort you. I, Seiya, love you most of all, I won't let anything happen to you, so don't worry about a thing, because everything's going to be alright." I smiled.

About ten minutes later we arrived at his school "You have everything, right Seiya?"

"Yup. Got my lunch, my bag with all my books; I think I'm good."

"Alright. Have a good day at school son, I'll pick you up at the end."

Seiya waved and went inside.

I began to fly to my house and realized that it had been a year since Spyro and Cynder showed Jane and me their eggs, and they still hadn't hatched but my thought process was interrupted and got a call on my phone. I found a safe place to land and saw that it was Spyro, _well speak of the devil!_ I thought I answered with "What's up?"

"I've got good news. First of all, I received word that our soldiers fought several slayer armies and we won all the battles in less than a few hours."

"Casualties?"

"None, just a few lightly injured. One just a sprained ankle from running."

"Good, is there anything else?" I asked.

"Well, you have to come here for the rest."

"Alright, I'll see you there." I hung up.

I had an extremely good feeling, that it was their eggs. If I remember correctly, when Aquarius gave me the dragon based "talk" he did say that eggs take about a year to hatch. Anyways, as Spyro instructed me, I flew to his house instead and never get tired of seeing his extravagant place. I live in a mansion and I still get jealous!

I landed on the door and knocked, standard procedure and was greeted by a smiling Spyro.

"Glad you could come. Please, come inside and make your way to the hatchery."

"Alright." I smiled and followed his new instructions, I saw Cynder around the eggs along with John, Maria, what looked like a small anthropomorphic dragonfly, a pink dragoness, a red dragon and another dragoness with colors similar to mine. She was sky blue with cream-colored horns, underbelly and white claws.

"So, what's going on? I recognize John and Maria but I don't believe I've met the rest."

Cynder smiled "Enoch, this-sometimes annoying- dragonfly is Sparx."

"Hey! Watch it, woman! If I wasn't with Spyro, you'd still be in Malefor's clutches!" stated Sparx.

"Mhm. Whatever you say. The red and punk dragons are Flame and Ember and that other dragoness is Cheryl."

"It's a pleasure to meet you four, how do you know Spyro and Cynder?" I asked

Sparx started first "Spyro and I are pretty much brothers, I helped him vanquish Malefor."

"Oh yeah, I remember now, whenever he talked about you he wished you were a bit better at fighting than playing and eating butterflies. He also said you ran away at the first sign of danger."

"Hey, unlike purple boy, I don't have impenetrable anything."

"Excuses." Laughed Spyro as he came in.

"We were one of Spyro's best friends when he lived in Warfang, though Ember over here wanted to be a bit more…"

 _So these are the dragons he told me about…_ "What can I say? I was a selfish teenager."

"Y-you really were. Although I don't recall inviting you two, specifically you Ember." Said hesitated Spyro.

"You can thank me for that, bro." Interjected Sparx.

"Why wouldn't you want to invite us?" asked Ember.

"Oh, I don't know, maybe because you always pushed me to leave Cynder and marry you, always interrupting our fates, constantly physically fighting with Cynder and the last time I tried to break it up, you then attacked me! I still have the bite mark." He pointed to his neck.

Ember sighed "I know, I'm sorry about that but like I said before, I was selfish and Flame always told me it was a bad idea and when I gave up, he was always with me by for support and… well, I think you can make out the rest." she put her Paw on Flame's "I hope you can forgive me."

Spyro thought "Well it has been a while and we were just teens… fine… I'll forgive you" He looked to Flame "I assume you won't let Ember get into any shenanigans as she did before?"

"You have my word." Confirmed Flame.

"So, how do you know… Cheryl?" I was going to say "This beauty" but I didn't think it was a good idea, there was just something about her that I found attractive, it was most likely her scale colors.

"Oh, we met in the lake a few hundred meters away from the wall. While Spyro was fishing out some trout, I was having a nap until I noticed her on the other side of the lake. I almost thought it was you for a second but then noticed the rest of her colors. She was drinking some water and looked like she was about to collapse so I, wanting to be friends came up to her and invited her for lunch." Answered Cynder.

"I originally just wanted a drink after- erm, forget I said "after". Anyway, I couldn't pass up an opportunity to eat with the great Spyro and Cynder."

I nodded "They are pretty famous. I had to resist the urge to fanboy when I first ate with them, and any time I was with them."

Spyro laughed "Come on, you two. You're making us blush, we're not that great. I mean, the ones we should praise are the ones who built Warfang, not to mention their walls."

"So, where do you live?" I asked Cheryl.

"I lived outside, somewhere in the forest, not sure where exactly though."

"Alone?"

"Well- yeah, I realized that it wasn't safe so I decided to live here instead, 'here' being inside the city, not in this house, mind you."

"But you look about as old as I do, what about your parents?"

Cheryl immediately looked down.

"Touchy subject got it. Forget I said anything!" I felt like a thoughtless jerk!

She sighed "It's- it's fine… Should anyone else be coming?" She asked, in a sadder tone (Way to go, genius…)

"We did invite the guardians, although I'm not sure when they'll arrive." Answered Cynder.

"Maybe Cyrill's too busy looking at himself in the mirror." I laughed, the room broke into laughter.

"He does love himself a bit more than he should" Spyro chuckled "I remember he actually did that all the time until Terrador removed all mirrors in the temple."

For the next few minutes, we were all talking about the guardian's quirks: Cyrill's pompousness, Volteer's blabbermouth and Terrador's strictness to name a few.

"I heard that." Boomed Terrador (Not that he shouted, he's just naturally loud.)

We looked at the window and saw that it was wide open! "Can someone open the door for us?" Asked Volteer.

"I'll get it." Said Spyro as he got up.

While the house certainly was large enough to fit a fully grown dragon, the guardians were a bit oversized than average and had to crouch down a bit "Well I never-" Said Cyrill with what looked like a large basket "We were going to give you all this food we prepared but since you talked about us like that, I suppose we'll just keep this." he dropped it which caused an aroma bomb to explode into the room. The scent of beef and lamb wafted through the basket, it had (at least us guys) begging like dogs!

"But Cyrill, we organized this food, you were staring at yourself through the pool of visions." Reminded Volteer.

"The only thing you did was put the food inside the basket." added Terrador.

"So I was right!" I laughed.

"Dig in everyone, Cyrill holds no say in the matter" Invited Volteer.

"Oh, you guys didn't have to do this." Said Cynder.

"How could we not? This is a once in a lifetime event." answered Cyrill.

Maria had a weird look on her face, "What's the event?"

The rest of us (or at least most of us) looked at her like she was stupid.

"Why, the hatching of course." Revealed Terrador.

"Hatching?" She wondered.

"Did Spyro not tell you about their eggs? They should hatch today." Asked Volteer.

I stepped in "Not to me but based on what was going on, what happened in the past and the context, I knew it had to do something with the eggs."

Terrador nodded "And you would be correct to assume that. Unlike humans that have a nine-month pregnancy, dragon eggs usually take about a year to hatch after being laid. The egg gives hints that it's about to hatch not by increasing in size, rather, the shell becomes thinner over time, obviously not thin enough to crack like a chicken's." he explained.

"And they do feel thinner" Added Cynder

"Which means that they'll hatch at any minute" commented Cyrill.

Aware of the eggs, we began to start eating, except for Cynder.

"What's wrong?" Asked Spyro.

"I can't get up without leaving the eggs." She stated

"We're at our house. What's the worst that can happen?"

Cynder sighed.

"Here, if it worries you so much then I'll guard them."

"Are you sure?"

"Of course I am, a father needs to protect his babies while the mother's out. Just make sure you don't eat too much, you're on a diet remember?"

"I think I can make a cheat day" Commented Cynder while getting up.

"Why are you on a diet?" asked Ember "You look great! My body's a mess compared to yours." I would disagree, but to each her own I guess?

"Nonsense." Countered Flame "You look great any day of the week. Cynder was just blessed with a slender frame after hatching and she looks thin no matter what she eats."

"But that does bring a question…" Wondered Cynder "Hun, why am I on a diet?"

"Is suppose you saw yourself as fat. You were never throwing up or anything so I was some-what fine with it, I don't think you need one. But you know the saying, 'happy wife, happy life" Answered Spyro.

"You saw yourself as fat?" Asked Ember "Cynder, compared to you, I'm the one who's-" she stopped herself.

"Now, now." Interjected Cyrill "Let's not compare body shapes, although it's quite obvious none of you will get a dashing one like mine-"

"Quiet Cyrill." Demanded Terrador.

"Hey guys, " I started "Do you mind saving a lamb leg or two? I'm sure Seiya would love this."

"Oh you mean your adopted son?" Asked Cyrill "I think we can save some. Right… Cynder?"

For a small frame, she has a giant appetite; she devoured nearly all the food!

"Oh, um. Right, sorry about that" She laughed nervously.

"Who's Seiya?" Asked Sparx.

"Oh, he's Enoch's little tike." Answered Volteer.

"Wait, you have a kid? At your age? But for that to happen-"

I cut Sparx off "Did you not hear Cyrill say 'adopted"?

"So why'd you take him in? You can't be qualified to care for a kid, much less a hatchling."

"Thank you!" Shouted Maria.

"Sparx, don't you remember that I was raised by your family of dragonflies? If they could raise me, then he can raise a kid, dragon or no." Stated Spyro.

"No need to defend me Spyro. First of all: As Maria should know, it's complicated. If I told you the story, it would sour the mood for the rest of the day, guarantee it. All I'll tell you is that he was left without a dad, as a guy who was raised without one and it was torture. I didn't want Seiya to suffer as I did. And third, I can do pretty much whatever I want to since I'm the king but it's not like I kidnapped him. I asked him if he wanted to come with me beforehand, he accepted." I explained.

Wanting to change the subject to a lighter tone, Volteer jumped in "How is the little guy? We haven't seen him aside from the pool, pictures, and letters you sent us." Unfortunately, they're not too tech savvy so I can't use email.

"Well if you guys come down from your temple more often, you can have more chances." I jostled jokingly.

"You know we can't do that. Most of the time we're too busy guarding the eggs in charged to us to come down."

"Aren't dragons supposed to guard their own eggs?" I asked.

"Well, they're supposed to but in some cases, the parents are too busy over long periods and with this time, usually we're overloaded with eggs. Spyro was one of those before, and Cynder too. Don't remember much of their parents though, I just know they were good friends with each other."

For the next few hours, we just laughed, joked and reminisced, the eggs occasionally moved but we got excited about nothing, not even a small crack. I then checked the time and saw that it was almost three "Time flew, I'll be back. I have to pick up my boy."

"Try to hurry" Said Cheryl "They could hatch any moment"

"I'll do my best." I walked out of the house and flew as fast as I could to Seiya's school and arrived at about 3:07. Seiya was waiting patiently with a big smile on his face.

"How was school, bud?"

"It felt like it went pretty fast, I got an A on my math test!"

I smiled "Really? Good job! I'm proud of you. I think I have just the reward, How does a meal of beef and lamb sound like?"

"And the movies too?" He asked.

"Sure! you earned it."

"Yay!" He jumped around excitedly.

"First, we have to go to Spyro and Cynder's place though. A once in a lifetime event is going to happen."

"What is it?" He asked.

"You'll have to see it for yourself… Race ya!" I took off, keeping an eye on him.

"Hey! No fair!" He laughed and flew after me.

I decreased my speed and let Seiya go ahead of me "Ha Ha!" He exclaimed, "I'm beating you!"

"Oh, just you wait!" I said while I flapped my wings harder, it didn't give me much but it gave the impression I wanted.

Like every always, he beat me to it "I beat you, I beat you!" He happily chanted "Cheaters never win!"

I acted out of breath "Yes… yes, you did. Whew. I thought I could beat you for sure with a boost. L-let's go inside, shall we?"

Seiya nodded, I opened the door and we went inside the hatchery. "What did we miss?" The eggs were still intact so not much.

"Oh, Seiya! I haven't seen you since you were a wee egg, you were so small, tiny, minute…" Volteer continued to ramble on until Cyrill stopped him.

"Okay, Volteer, okay. You've confused him enough with your giant vocabulary."

Seiya nodded. I cleared my throat " Seiya, these are the guardians. These dragons protected you when you were an egg."

"That's right, young dragon. Whenever you need help and your dad isn't available, you can always come to us." Terrador spoke in a lower tone, to not scare him.

"Yeah, if you don't have any eggs to guard" I snickered under my breath.

"What's that?" Asked Terrador.

"Oh, nothing. Just saying you're always so busy."

"I think we can take some time for Seiya." Said Volteer with a warm smile.

I began to introduce the rest "And you already know these two." I gestured to Spyro and Cynder "Are you hungry?" I asked, to which Seiya nodded.

"Well, that's just perfect. We just happen to have a large plate with beef and lamb, just for you." Declared Volteer.

"Really?" Asked Seiya.

"Yup." he nodded as he took away his tail to reveal the meat on a plate.

Seiya looked at me "Go ahead, you deserve it."

His face beamed and began to dig into the expertly spiced food as if Gordon Ramsay prepared it. As we talked for a bit more, the eggs began to move often.

"Could this be it?" Wondered Cynder excitedly.

I began to hear cracking noises "I think so," said Spyro as he got closer to his wife and lowered his head.

A tiny paw punched right through the shell and bopped Spyro's snout "Ouch. The kid's already got some power" he joked.

A second paw appeared and it looked like the hatchling was trying to pry the egg open. "Pretty ambitious fella, isn't it?" Observed Cheryl.

After about a minute of pulling, it decided to headbutt as we saw two little horns bursting out. Eventually, an emerald green hatchling climbed out, before we let out an "Aww!" the hatchling began to scratch at the other egg, not frantically, just casually, like a cat at a scratching post. Just like the emerald one, the hatchling inside started scratching and headbutting, but it then fell on its side and began to roll a bit. The hatchling was not deterred and kept at it, eventually breaking out and a dark purple hatchling stumbled out, with a piece of shell still on its head.

The purple one then uttered a sneeze that shook off the shell, while some of us smiled and chuckled, the others let out an "aww!" which made it hop backward and flipped on its back, we must've scared it a bit.

As if immediately knowing who their parents were, both of them walked (but sometimes fell) to Spyro and Cynder; when they arrived they were gently picked up and cuddled. Cynder held up the purple one and happily stated: "It's a boy."

"And this is a girl." Declared Spyro equally as happy with the emerald one.

"Congratulations" we shouted, though perhaps wasn't the best idea as our voices probably scared them a bit as they covered themselves with their wings.

"Looks like I won't have to hate you after all" joked Cynder as they put them down and let them explore a small bit.

"So what will you name them?" I asked as the green one started to swat at my tail "She reminds me of a cat." I laughed.

The purple one stayed close to his father while staring at him with amazement, I bet he was thinking "Will I ever be as big as you?" and when Cynder beckoned to the other one, she got closer and stared at her with equal amazement.

"Well, as I said before, we never thought of any names. We would get to it at the moment." Reminded Spyro.

Cynder thought for a moment "How about Jade, for this little girl?"

"I think that's a beautiful name." Opined Spyro.

"Jade it is then." declared Cynder.

"How about Alexander for this one?" Asked Spyro.

"A human name?" I wondered.

"Well, 'Jade' is a human name also, though it's less common." Said, John.

"Hmm… In history there was a man with the title 'Alexander the Great'; he managed to take over the whole known world back then, in a rather quick manner too." Though he did die somewhat young at thirty-two years old, but I wasn't going to tell him that!

"Alexander it is then" Finalized Spyro.

Cyrill closed his eyes "Jade and Alexander, huh? That has a nice ring to it."

Terrador nodded "Ignitus would be proud."

After a few minutes of talking, the hatchlings started to say their names.

"J-j-j-ade?" She sputtered.

Cynder craned down and nuzzled her child "That's right sweetie, that's your name."

Alexander began to say his name in the same manner and received attention from Spyro just as Cynder did. A few minutes later, I got a call from one of my generals so I stepped into the living room.

"Make it quick." I ordered, "You're disturbing a happy moment."

"Yes, sir. In our most recent attack, we've discovered that there are twelve large fortresses built around the country; we've discovered the location of the first one but the other eleven are a mystery."

"How'd you get this information?" I asked.

"After we killed the last of the slayers we raided their camp and found that they had burned quite a bit of paper except that there was one that was left. On that paper, it talked about having twelve fortified locations but only one was there, the rest of them seemed to have been cut out."

"Have the soldiers drilled for two days, we'll attack the day after."

"Understood sir."

I hung up and sighed " _Let's just try to enjoy the rest of the day…_ " I thought.

We stayed for about an hour more and then Seiya and I left but during that time, I managed to get a bit closer to Cheryl and found out that she lived fairly close to me, we could walk to each other's houses if we wanted to. Anyway, I had Seiya get ready once we got home and like I promised, I took him to see a movie, a superhero movie to be exact.


	33. Chapter 33

Chapter 33

The testudo: an ancient Roman battle formation used to keep soldiers from being ranged attacks. Formed by multiple soldiers carrying large rectangular shields called scutums. Truly, an Italian masterpiece.

"My feet are killing me…" groaned a soldier.

"How long until we break camp again?" sighed another

"Excuse me, sir?" Asked a general "We've been marching for nearly five hours with little break. Shouldn't we take a rest? I'm not as tired as the others but, my feet are starting to ache a bit…" He explained.

We were marching a standard marching formation, though effective, I suppose I can't stretch the stamina of my troops. I, not tired at all took a look at my map "Well, I guess I should have expected that. I don't think that we've marched this far… two and a half days would take its toll eventually but I think we've seen that it creates discipline in the ranks. Anyways…" I traced my finger from New Warfang to our approximate location "If I'm correct… we should have about five miles left. We'll break camp here" I declared as I raised my hand to halt the formations.

"Alright boys, get some chow and then break camp, you guys deserve it." I announced through the radio. As I sat down to prepare my mre I heard a voice from my radio "High general?"

"What is it, soldier?"

"With all due respect, why did we march all the way here without any vehicles along with these bulky shields?"

I chuckled "You're private, aren't you?"

"Y-yes sir, why do you ask?"

"Take a look at the spacing of these trees. I can't even for a jeep without difficulty, not even a dragoon. It's a miracle I fit an army through here."

"Why didn't we use the roads?"

"Well we would be a huge target if we marched through one if we found a slayer group, and while we would be able to dispatch them, we would have lost time and I would rather take the least amount of risks when it comes to this stuff. As for the shields, you were in our training missions right?"

"Yes sir, I was a machine gunner."

"Then you can probably guess what these will be used for. R&D made them to be as light as possible yet also be able to withstand the highest of calibers. You only get one in this mission so don't lose it, unless you want to get shot."

While waiting for my steak dinner to finish, I was relaxing on my hammock just watching the sun go down between the trees.

"Yo, Enoch." Said John.

"What's up?" I asked.

"Did you really have to make us a walk this whole way?" He chuckled.

"I'm pretty sure you handled, besides, it's good exercise for the men."

"There has to be such a thing as 'too much exercise'..."

"Coming from the guy that works out almost every morning, day and night." I lightly jostled.

"Anyways, why'd you come? I'm sure Seiya didn't like the thought of you leaving."

"Well, someone has to lead these guys, it;s a morale boost. But no, Seiya was pretty said when I told him about, but I can't just sit on the couch while you guys are potentially dying, it stresses me out."

"Yeah? Don't you think Seiya would be stressed to? His parents were killed right in front of him and lost his uncle, you're the only family he has left." he stated.

"You're right on that but if we don't take our the Slayers, not only could I be killed but so would Seiya and everyone other dragon too. It's a necessary evil that I have to partake in. Besides, I always promise him that I'll come back, though I hope alive and not in a bag…"

"Well, you have such a thick head sometimes that maybe a bullet will just bounce off. Anyways, you think we're ready for this attack?"

"I'm pretty sure we are, we have explosives and not to mention, those shields. Once we go in there and take it over, I have a sneaking suspicion that we'll find our next fortress location in there. Anyway Johnny-boy, how's your battalion doing? Treating them well?"

He, with a good punch to the arm said "They're doing well, trying to follow the writings of The Art of War, it really works for such an old book."

"You know about Sun Tzu?" I asked, surprised.

"...Who?"

"Sun Tzu, the author of The Art of War?"

"...I don't think that was on my book, I believe it was a different person who wrote it"

"Looks like someone wrote a similar manuscript here then…"

For the rest of the time we just joked and laughed, we were going to fight after all, not only for ourselves but for an entire race. It was good to keep our spirits up and take our minds off of it.

The next day eventually came, we formed up into the testudo, it was basically a shield wall that covered the top, sides and in our variant: our rear. As soon as we were one hundred feet away, we soon walked into the lead maelstrom. Were it for our shields and we would have been massacred. While we were constantly hit by the rounds which caused extremely loud bangs, none of us lost our courage and we marched on. We managed to march up to the wall, after that the front shield men placed the C4 explosive on the wall, retracted a few ten feet away and blew a massive hole in the wall. The shockwave was so extreme that some of the machine gunners lost their footing and fell to their death. We marched over their corpses and into the fortress, they fought even more ferociously and it felt like the bullets were hitting us harder but we kept formation. While some fired their guns, others basically just leaped at us but met their end when they met our jabbing swords.

It felt strange though, they felt disorganized, well, they were already to begin with, but this time they were even more. After a few more attempts to break the formations by melee, they probably saw that it wasn't going to work. So sure enough, they broke out the gas grenades along with regular frags. Though they really just gassed themselves since they didn't have their own masks. It was hard to attack in our formation, we couldn't just march in our testudos up the wall so we were pretty pinned down, we needed support! Once I radioed the generals of the dragons and cavalry, several battalions flew over us, disrupting the machine guns on us and on them.

It was dangerous but they knew what they had to do. While flechettes were dropped by the cavalry the dragons bit, sliced and dropped several slayers fifty feet off the ground. We dispersed into smaller testudos and went to work. Bullets were traded, swords were blocked and crossed and a few fists were thrown. At the end of the storm, all of the slayers laid dead at our feet. I took a look at one of their faces and recognized him to be one of my people. He died with an expression of sadness and while this took me aback, I just shook my head and stood up.

"Traitors…" I growled "Search the place for anything that leads up to the second fortress or anything useful." I ordered.

I waited for what felt like an hour, only for the men to turn up nothing but a few boxes of ammo.

"Did any of you find anything map related?"  
"All we found were shreds of paper" Said John "Looks like they wouldn't repeat the same thing they did at their last."

"Excuse me, sirs?" asked a dragon.

We turned to him, who was holding a piece of paper. "I found this in the hands on one of the bodies"

It had several numbers on it separated by a single comma,

I'm pretty sure I knew what they were but I wanted to make sure with John, that and he was better with them than I. "What do you make of them?

"These are coordinates… to what, I'm not so sure…"

I nodded "The second fortress, perhaps?"

"But why would a slayer write down the coordinates? Couldn't it be a trap?"

"...It could be but there's only one way to find out.: I took out my map and John started tracking it down. He pointed at an area deep in the tree line. "That's the place" declared John. Once we put the few of our dead comrades into their bags, we burned and buried the rest of the slayers. We called down a chinook to bring in soldiers to guard the fortress and the rest of us went home. A similar process continued with the other five fortresses we took, though sometimes they did fight back to reclaim their lost fortresses who we repelled fairly easily. Through those months, I racked up quite the kill count that I wore with pride. With every dead slayer, the less dragons the slayers would eventually take. I killed so many that if I could poor out the blood, it would be enough to fill a large river. I defended my countrymen and the dragons, protected them from the evil dragonslayers and there were only six more to go, I could see victory in our hands. I could have cared less about how many slayers I killed, in my mind, they were a bunch of scumbags and traitors who decided to exterminate the dragons, I felt no remorse in any way.

At least until Cheryl and I were ending our date one day at sunset.

"So great general, are you tired of the war? The killing?" She asked.

I sighed "Yes and no. Yes because I'm tired of hundreds of dragons vanish every week but no because I love helping the aid of the slayer wipe-out"

"...Not that I'm being ungrateful for helping us, but, you've killed so many people, don't you feel the least bit sick?"

"Why would I? These 'people' are devoted to your entire extinction, I won't stand for that. And those I've killed who were my people, betrayed their entire country and joined our enemies, I could care less for them." I stated.

Cheryl looked at me with a mournful expression "...Not by choice…" she muttered.

"What?" I asked.

"Not by choice! You have no idea why they joined them in the first place!"

"Why? How do you know they didn't join by choice?"

"Because I knew quite a few of them, while my family and I were in their death camp."

"What?" I was extremely shocked/

Cheryl sighed "I had to tell you this eventually… I guess it's better now than later…" She took a deep breath "My village was ransacked, one of the first ones that were attacked during that 'truce'. Not many soldiers, if at all, we guarding the village so there was not much resistance. They killed any and every soldier and anyone else who tried to oppose them. Sooner rather than later, we were all lined up. They gave the humans a choice, either become one of them or their whole family will die, including him. Many joined their ranks but there were also many who, enforced by their family, would not become one of those monsters. It was a bloodbath… Those who joined weren't beat but their families were put in chains and shackles and they were the ones flogged. They killed quite a few of us too but I think we would have preferred death than slavery.

They put us underground in a fortress and only took us out to work, sometimes hauling statues, other times tons of steel, but the worst kind of load was the corpses of my kin… But there was a small silver lining. We were fed very little but when they could, some 'slayers' who were really more captives, had compassion on us and gave us a bit more meat in secret. Though when they were caught… I could only imagine what they went through, their screams gave me nightmares that I still suffer from… The very next day, they were publicly executed and we were forced to haul their bodies away from the place. But that didn't stop them though, they kept bringing us extra bits of food.

Eventually, through relayed messages and talking with the 'slayers', we were able to organize a riot. Though, the few nights before, went through with me an escape plan during the commotion. At the bottom of the wall, there was a small hole that looked just big enough to squeeze through, but I didn't want to go through with it. I didn't want to leave my parents behind but while I pleaded with them, my dad said that 'it is better for the younger generation to survive than the old' The next day passed and is started with a public freakout from an overly stressed dragon to a full-scale riot. Shots were fired, dragons ran to and fro and my parents were nowhere to be found, I impatiently started to look for them. I then remembered my dad's words and ran to where the hole was.

Unfortunately, it was blocked by a squad of slayers… something… just awakened in me. The next thing I saw myself doing was ripping slayers appart, biting their arms clean off, plunging my claws and ripping them out with some organ pieces still stuck to my next thing I saw was the corpses in around me and my scales completely covered in red. I had no time to contemplate what just happened so I managed to squeeze myself to freedom through the drain. After I crawled through though, I saw some dragons trying to fly away but they were soon shot down, as we had been descaled by that point. I ran and ran until I couldn't even walk, eventually I found a large lake to have a drink and wash the blood off of me. A few fifty feet after, I managed to find a cave with plenty of red crystals surrounding it so I helped myself and grew my scales back. I spent nine whole months in that death camp and three years living in that cave, until I met Spyro and Cynder… and then you…"

I felt disgusted and sorrowful for her. Disgusted in what I've done and what the slayers did, sorrowful for everything she had to go through. I had to do something. So in an instant, I turned to my dragon form and nuzzled her to comfort her, she then returned it after a few seconds. She was probably shocked and we nuzzled each other until sundown.

Late that night, I was violently throwing up in the bathroom, up to the point where Seiya and the rest were scared and opened my door.

"Dad, a-are you okay?" Asked Seiya.

"I'm-" I heaved "I'm okay Seiya, just-just a little sick is all…" I said into the toilet.

"What did you to to him, runt!?" I heard Maria.

"Nothing! Why do you always blame me for everything!?" Said Seiya.

"Don't you dare lie to your superiors! You vile worm!"

"Maria!" I shouted "Seiya didn't do anything except give me the happiest months of my life, you on the other hand-" I threw up again, equally as violent.

"Guys, I think you two should leave to your rooms. I'll talk to him" I heard John's calm voice.

I heard the door close "So what's going on? Did you eat something wrong?" asked John as he stepped into the room.

"It's, it's more like something I did… over and over again…" I said as I tried to get my breathing right "Okay, I think I'm done…-nope!" I hurled once more into the toilet and flushed "Good grief… the water bill will be high this month…" I felt my head spin, like I was going to collapse and revealed my tear stained face.

"What's wrong?" Asked John in a more concerned tone as he helped me get up.

After I washed my face and had a drink from the sink, I began "Some of the slayers we killed… may not have been what we thought they were…" I then explained pretty much everything that Cheryl told me. John had a pained expression on his face, who then went to throw up but not as much as I did.

"The soldiers aren't going to be happy about this…" groaned John/

That night after we all went into our respective rooms, I had almost ceaseless nightmares and barely got any sleep.


	34. Chapter 34

John was right. When we told the soldiers about the "slayers", some went to the bathroom and some were so angry they punched the wall which left quite the dent (That'll be coming out of their paycheck…)

"So, are we still going to fight them?" Asked one

"Unfortunately, yes, though I hate the thought of killing fellow Unitarians" (Unitarian, being what I call my people, not the denomination) "We will fight, but if anyone of them surrenders, we'll take them as a 'prisoner'. Once they're in jail, we give them a few choices if they were forced into the army. They could live out their normal life, or join the Skyforce and fight against them. If they choose neither or originally a slayer that won't change, then they'll stay in their cell until the day they die. Regardless, we'll treat them with care and hospitality, three meals a day and that kind of stuff. Any questions or concerns?"

The meeting lasted for about an hour, though, some weren't too keen on showing the slayers any kindness. I reminded them (and myself) that Jesus told us to love one another and bless those who curse us. Since everyone was a Christian, they understood that pretty well, though I could tell that a few of them wanted to stab a slayer in the face, and I can't blame them, especially when it came to a few dragons.

As I was flying home, I began to ponder to myself. There was something wrong with Maria… ever since I adopted Seiya, she's been angrier than before and when I'm with Cheryl, she's even more! I had a hunch but why would she be jealous of a kid? I already warned her of the consequences if she mistreated the poor little guy, he already had one traumatizing experience, he doesn't need another. Once I warned her though, she acted like a six-year-old and pretty much threw a tantrum and screamed like a banshee, I'm surprised I'm not deaf yet.

For the past few months, Maria was also sneaking out quite often during the night. One night, I was walking downstairs to have a glass of water until I saw her silhouette, I responded by immediately stopping and watched what she was doing. After she unlocked the door and went outside, I waited a few minutes and then began to follow her. I was a good bit away so when she turned back, so couldn't see anyone, but I could see her. I followed her up to the walls to which she evaded any patrolmen and managed to go outside the walls and apparently managed to dodge the spotlights. As those months went by, I grew increasingly suspicious but I didn't let anyone know as it could have caused some sort of panic and/or riots or something like that. That last night I saw her carry a large pack and I had a pretty good idea what she was doing too, though that wasn't confirmed until that day.

It was evening, Seiya was done with his homework so we were playing a fighting game that was pretty much super smash bros. We were deep into our game, almost equally matched and I was not going to let Seiya damage my character even more and his final smash meter was full to the brim and mine was only halfway. I tried to play it safe, dodging, blocking and using ranged attacks and it was all well and good until I heard Seiya's stomach growl, he took that one second of me being distracted, got too close and immediately initiated his attack. My character was blown far out of the platform, the screen then shouted "K.O!" and I let out a defeated sigh. "Good game Seiya. Want some popcorn?" I asked.

"Yes please, just the way I like it." He accepted.

"You got it, to the victor go the spoils," I said as I went into the kitchen to mix the spices and pop the popcorn. As I was mixing, I heard someone come downstairs but I assumed it was John going out to train the troops.

"Um… hi… wanna play a match?" I heard Seiya's trembling voice, I then remembered that John has been in the base since five in the morning! Meaning that we were alone with…

"D-da-AAHH!" He screamed.

I immediately dropped the bowl and let it crash to the ground as I ran to the living room and what I saw scared me to the bone, I was horrified. Seiya was bleeding profusely from his underbelly, bawling his eyes out. Standing behind him was Maria with a slayer's mace, who seemed to have had a psychopathic grin. I desperately searched for a red crystal in my pockets but there was nothing, however, there was a glass jar of reds right next to her, once she realized what I was looking at, she smashed the jar along with the crystals to bits. If Seiya was the one who smashed them, then he would have been healed but it only affects the last living person it was touched by but since it was a steel mace that hit it, it didn't affect anyone. I then knelt down and started to put some pressure on his wound and shouted: "What's the meaning of this!?". She stood silent, I reached my radio but she quickly whipped her pistol out and shot it out of my hand.

"Oh, there'll be none of that." She declared.

"Why are you doing this!?" I asked.

"Isn't it obvious?" She asked, it obviously wasn't. "I'm in love with you, I have been nothing but nice to you but you pay more attention to your 'son' and Cheryl. How do you think that makes me feel? You barely notice me!"

"I do notice you but I was never into you, and now I know why! First, you almost try to kill Jane, then you stab me in the chest. Afterward, you then act horrible to Seiya and now try to kill him! Admit it, you were happy when your sister died! Because then you would think that you would have a chance with me! Well, you don't! Especially because of this! I hate you!"

Again, she stood silent. "...How dare you… How dare you! I have been nothing but nice to you, I supported your stupid decision to reclaim Warfang, instead of you going alone that day, I joined you so you wouldn't get hurt and came out without a scratch. It would have been better if you died along with that stupid dragon!"

"Now I see your true colors… You've been hostile to any girl that even came near me. When I try to go out with Cheryl, an apparent 'random' accident happens and some sort of pipe breaks or the oven breaks down, so I have to stay and fix it. Now I know what caused all those malfunctions. No one in the right mind would fall for you, someone must be brain dead if they like someone with an attitude like that."

She stood silent a third time and then spoke. "Well... If that's how it's going to be then fine! Maybe if I erase Seiya, Cheryl and the rest of your precious dragons from the equation, you'll finally notice me!" She swung down the mace but before it touched him, I turned into my dragon form and used my tail to catch it by the handle "Now that you mention it a second time, I have noticed you. I've noticed that you're bat guano nuts!" I wrenched it out of her hand and threw it behind the couch, making a loud thunk. I then slammed my tail into her stomach, sending her flying and crashing into the TV. I almost let my anger overtake me but as I walked to a now unconscious Maria to enact the finishing blow, I remembered that my son was dying! I turned into my human form and ripped my shirt to wrap it around him, acting as some sort of bandage. As I reached for the home phone, I heard a flatline, the phone wasn't working; Maria must've snapped a cord or something beforehand.

The only thing that came to my mind then was taking him to the hospital myself. I transformed again and began to desperately fly him to the nearest hospital. Once I arrived, I practically barged through the glass doors, desperately requesting a doctor. I was helped almost immediately, primarily because of my status but also because of the nearly dead hatchling I was holding. I followed the rushing cart where Seiya was put on and informed the doctor about what caused the wound.

I then waited outside for what felt like an eternity, worried for him, wondering if I was too late and if there was anything else I could have done until the doctor finally came out.

"How is he?"

"He sustained a near devastating wound, just a few more inches to the right and his lungs would have been punctured. If he managed to bleed a bit more then we would have lost him." Is the condensed version of what he said. He gave me a larger explanation of what happened to him but long story short, it's a miracle Seiya didn't die. He then explained to me that he was fine and in good condition to be taken home, though he may have wanted to explain a bit further. I opened the door and saw Seiya resting on the hospital bed and the nurses made way for me.

"Hey, bud…" I carefully nudged him but he made no response.

"He's still under the effects of the anesthesia, he'll wake up in a bit." assured the nurses.

I sighed in relief as the nurses went outside of the room. The place where he was hit was good as new, the scales that were ripped off were healed which was most likely the doing of a good red crystal. The clock said that it was nine at night, I couldn't believe my eyes until I looked out the window where it was pretty dark outside. Then again, it was sunset when I brought him in. I took a seat and must've dozed off as I didn't remember Seiya waking up and tugging at my hand. When I opened my eyes, joy overflowed me and I hugged him as tight as I could, saying inconceivable things through my blubbering. After everything was said and done, we finally flew home; Seiya never even winced at flapping his wings.

Some things were cleaned up but the bloodstain on the carpet was still there, at least the TV was replaced though Maria was nowhere to be found.

"What happened here?" Asked John who was on the couch. I whispered to Seiya to go to his room and I kept walking. "Hey." I felt a firm hand on my shoulder "Tell me, what happened here?"

"Or what?" I snapped "Will you also betray me just like the rest of your siblings!?"

John had an incredibly confused look on his face "What? No! I would never do that! I just want to know what happened here."

"What do you think!? Who do you think happened!? You're bloody sister happened! That's what!" I shouted.

"Maria?" He wondered.

"Of course Maria! Who else has been bothering Seiya ever since he got here!?"

"But how? What did she do?" He asked.

"Take a look behind the couch and you'll see!"

He had an even more puzzled face when he looked. "What… exactly am I supposed to be looking for?"

When I looked, there was nothing left except a few bloodstains. "Do you really not know what happened?" I asked.

"Obviously not."

I sighed and proceeded to explain "Sorry for snapping at you earlier…" I finished.

"No, no, it's fine. You just went through a horrible ordeal… I just never thought she would be capable of…"

"Murder? You do remember she stabbed me in the chest before, right? That was about three years ago."

"...Fair point… Though she was aiming for her own sister… which makes it look much worse…" He sighed "I just wish she told me about this, maybe I could have helped her somehow that didn't end up in how it did. While I scolded her in how she treated Seiya, I suppose I should have asked her about why she was doing that. I will take part of the blame but still… I can't believe I'm related to that mess. Our father would be very much disappointed in her"

So would he be in most of the rest...I thought "I should really hire a royal guard" I sighed "I can't let this crap keep happening…"

"Yeah you should, we should also stay vigilant. Maria knew quite a bit of information on our tactics and weapons."

"She'll be detained when we see her but if she resists, and she probably will in a violent way, then we may have to take drastic decisions. As far as I'm concerned, she betrayed us and I have a sneaking suspicion that's she's joined the slayers. She couldn't have taken the maces we're storing as they were all still there, so that narrows it down."

John sadly nodded "Well… I'll see you in the morning…"

The next morning when I woke up, I checked my door; for the first time in forever, it was locked.


	35. Chapter 35

After Maria's disappearance, the slayers attacked New Warfang much more frequently. From maybe every five months to pretty much every month at least one time, they also slightly changed their strategy. Instead of sending one whole wave to one side (and get decimated) they surround New Warfang and then send wave after wave (Usually ending up in the same result.) However, there was one time it went down a bit different. Usually, it's just pure infantry, they only used armored vehicles in the very beginning and suddenly just stopped but this time they had Dragoons and even a few Alphas!

True to slayer tactics: They rushed at the walls, the railgun men were able to blast a good bit of the infantry, leaving only a few in comparison to the machineguns. While the railguns are powerful, they take a small bit to reload, leaving them vulnerable for about a minute. The enemy Alphas took that opportunity to blow up a few railguns but their equipment must've been faulty as some blew up in their faces. It makes sense as we had to upgrade a few things from their original plans, but what was even more interesting is that their weapons blew up. I'm guessing they were too stubborn and used their blueprints, I bet they regretted that. The enemy didn't waste their chance, their dragoons and other units pushed and managed to break through (while crushing their soldiers…). It instantly became a battle on the inside and outside. Thankfully, Seiya was in the underground bunker along with the royal guard so I knew he was safe while I suited up for my Alpha. Scaled Foxtrot came out of the hangar in all its glory and as soon as I joined the rest of the Alphas, I knew the battle was won.

An enemy Alpha came running towards me, I activated the flame thrower to at least distract the mech while I stepped to the side. I grabbed its arm and repeatedly slammed my fist on its joint (Funny thing about Alphas, any damage that the mech receives will be felt by the pilot since their brain is connected to it.) and managed to break it off. Just like the savage I was, I then used its arm to beat it down but he decided to surprise me by launching a few missiles. I was too close to dodge and took the full brunt of those things. While I was in much pain, it only bolstered my resolve. I engaged my mace where my right hand transformed into a morning star, to which I then began to slam into the cockpit/head. That was only one of the fights, in the end, the battle was long and hard but we managed to drive out the slayers out of New Warfang, not too many casualties but quite a bit of damage to our buildings and houses, which the I and the rest of my council will pay for (obviously).

We also found out that an Alpha I took down belonged to Maria, I mean, now that I think of it, it did seem more agile and was a bit of a prick to fight. She used whips, a giant version of a slayer mace, a few small missiles attached to her wrist and well, the Alpha itself. Her mech had several limbs missing and quite a few holes in it, the pain itself must've killed her. She most likely passed on all the information she knew to the slayers and a few hours after the battle when we announced Maria's death, we found the bodies of several soldiers in their rooms with their pistols in their hands. The autopsy said that it was most likely suicide, so we can probably infer that they were slayer spies.

Nothing too exciting happened, a few slayer and fortress attacks but for the most part it was somewhat peaceful (for myself at least) but something did happen when we raided the eleventh fortress. We were heavily pinned down by their machine guns as some had the brilliant idea to dig trenches (if it didn't work in WW1 then why did I go ahead with the plan!?) We couldn't even move an inch unless we wanted to eat lead. I got a radio transmission from a commander of a dragon battalion saying that he and the rest will come to relieve them and act as a distraction for us. I told them that it was a bad idea; their attack was going to be seen a mile away, quite literally in fact! I never got a single response back, their machine guns eventually stopped pelting our trenches (Thankfully we had shield men reinforce the top…) but they averted their attention to the dragons, and a downpour of scales blood and bodies began to fall. "Fools!" I muttered under breath.

Though I was both hurt and frustrated, I wasn't going to let their sacrifice be in vain. I gave the order to form up and charge and after a long fight, we finally managed to take it at the cost of about half the dragons that came with us. It was a sad sight coming back, but I couldn't have done anything, they blatantly disobeyed my orders, what was I going to do? Night fell and I was at the cemetery, looking at the freshly filled graves, not just mourning but also thinking on how I could stop something like that from happening again. My thoughts were interrupted by a gentle hand on my shoulder. I turned to look but then I heard a voice say "No, don't look at me. Go to your home instead. These dragons will live once more." I nodded and with full faith, I went home. The next morning, my army was replenished and the dragons who were KIA were very much alive with not even a scratch who just casually chatted with each other. I had a hunch on who the person was that night, but I didn't think too much about it.

During the next fortress raid, it seemed that they remembered their mistake because, on the twelfth fortress, we were pinned down (why do I keep agreeing on building trenches!?) but they followed my orders. When they asked if they could do anything, I told them to stay where they were and they did. I called a few railgun shots instead where we took the fortress and "POW's".

"Enoch," Called John.

"What is it?"

"You may want to take a look at this"

I was glad to hear it, mostly when he said that, it meant that he or someone else found something that could give us an edge in the war and it was an edge indeed. As we went underground, he and a few soldiers led me to their war room, not just any war room though. On the back of the wall was a giant map of UT, showing New Warfang, some villages and towns (Some had a red "x" on them), their fortresses and last but not least, their headquarters. According to the map, it was a few thousand miles East of New Warfang, just bordering the edge of the country. After four years of constant fighting and bloodshed, we finally found their final base.

"Write down the coordinates and mark it on our map. We'll take that also, just in case we miss anything vital." I ordered. We came back with our people cheering for us, Seiya and Cheryl were happy to see me come back as always.

Starting the day after, my soldiers and I went through intense training for pretty much the next two entire weeks (Except Saturday and Friday sundown of course.). Refining our formations, simulated training, crawling through mud under barbed wire with high-speed paint rounds above it and other things. As always, starting with at least a five-mile run and sometimes ended with overnight training missions. While I was highly anticipating going to the final battle with my men, Seiya and Cheryl didn't like the thought (As they didn't like it either when I went on every fortress raid.)

That final night, John and I came back exhausted. All I wanted was to fall on my bed and sleep the night away. Unfortunately, we can't always get what we want… Seiya was waiting on the couch with Cheryl patiently lying next to it. I knew what was about to go down. Seiya and I argued about for pretty much the whole two weeks I came back and I also fought about it with Cheryl, when all I wanted was a nature walk or dinner at some restaurant.

"What's all this?" I played dumb and asked.

"Dad, ever since my actual parents were killed, I saw you as the last family member I had." Started Seiya.

"You've done more than enough for us, why not let your soldiers take care of this. Neither of us wants you to die, and being 'devastated' would be an understatement. We care for you too much, one of us more than the other."

"Well, I'm sorry but when I put my mind into something, I fully commit to it no matter what happens. Besides, Gods protected me this whole time, the worst I've gotten is a few scratches… well, except that one time the slayers invaded but I didn't even feel anything."

"Yeah? What if God withdraws his protection from you? What will he do? Will he just turn the bullets into sheep's wool?" Asked Cheryl in an almost mocking tone.

"If that's his will, then yes."

"You really think that God's going to save you from them?" She asked.

"Is that a question?" I retorted.

"Not really, more of an observation. But here's a question: Are you really going to fight them with a bunch of shields?"

"First of all, you underestimate the power of our formation but secondly and more importantly, you underestimate the power of my God! You! You Cheryl! You've seen what God can do. He's saved you from slavery and provided everything you needed after escaping, a cave to live in, red crystals in abundance and a lake full of fish to eat, and you still doubt him?"

"It's not doubt! It's common sense- er- maybe it is doubt… I don't know! But they're killing machines!"

"And my God is an impenetrable shield, I think that gives me the advantage. Besides, you said it yourself, some of those men were forced into fighting, not by choice."

"All the more reason not to go! You won't be shedding any more possible innocent blood! They'll be ordered to kill you and the rest of your men!"

"Did you not hear the part where I called God an impenetrable shield?"

John interrupted "Guys, guys, why won't we calm down for a moment, I'll make some tea and-"

"Stay out of this, John!" Shouted Cheryl.

John put his hands up as if to say "Okay! Please don't hurt me!"

"I just worry about you… I care about you… deeply… if you don't come back alive-! I-I-I don't know what I'll do!" Explained Cheryl.

Seiya nuzzled my leg in tears repeating "Daddy, daddy… please don't go!"

I sighed "My mind is made up, Cheryl. I'm going to get rid of the slayer menace once and for all." I stated.

"Fine!" She stomped "I don't want to see you in a body bag but if you're going to be a fool, then so be it!" She pushed off the side but I could tell that she was hurting and trying to hold back tears on the inside and flew away.

I knelt to be at eye-level with Seiya "Don't worry… When I come back, I will be the very first person you see coming in. I promise."

Seiya, still crying, ran away into his room, slamming the door. I then stood up and wiped a single tear.

"Hey, hey, cheer up, You made a promise to your kid, and you always keep them. We'll come back home, I can guarantee it, we always have."

"I suppose so…" I sighed and went to boil a pot of herbal tea "You want some?" I asked.

"I'll take a cup."

The next day we woke up at four in the morning, went to the base and suited up. I forgot to mention that we received reinforcements from a dragon tribe called the Nerazims from a dragon named Zephyr, one of them gave a message that he wanted to thank me for all that I've been doing for the dragonkin. Spyro and Cynder also decided to sign out of the reserves and join the main army once again. Flame and Ember took care of Jade and Alexander, they even had a hatchling of their own, Phoenix, I'd say it's a fitting name.

Anyway, when we were all suited up, we all met in the meeting hangar for one final message and briefing. Once all was explained by John, I cleared my throat and began my speech.

"Friends, soldiers, dragons and dragons from the Nerazim tribes: We have been oppressed for far too long, but today, we end it all. We have conquered all the slayer fortresses and now all that's left is the slayer base. This is the moment we've been waiting for, so many hatchlings have been left parentless and vice versa because of them. We will get revenge for every single innocent life they've taken. Don't forget why you joined the Skyforce, no one forced you into it. Our job is to protect and defend Unitatis Terra at all costs for the past two weeks, not all of you will be going to fight, however. In the case, we suffer heavy losses and our attack is crushed, if they launch a counterattack, we will have the other half of the army to defend this city. If they take New Warfang, they take all of Unitatis Terra. I can't promise that all of you will come back uninjured, or come back at all, but I do promise this. If you die in battle, your sacrifice will not be in vain or forgotten. Remember this: In war, there are no rules, anything goes, you can be as brutal as you want, just eliminate the enemy, I'm sure the slayers have done much worse. Whatever you do in combat, find an excuse to win! Keep going! Even if a grenade lands a few feet away from you, even if your whole squad is shot down! Keep going! It pays to be a winner! What you will win is the gratitude of all the dragonkin and my thanks for serving in the fight and your country. Whether a medic, a scout, a grunt, you all have my thanks. There may be a day when we lost, but that day is not that day! Today we fight!" I shouted.

The soldiers began to clap and dragons began to roar a grand roar and when all was said and done, the attacking force and I all gathered around the gate in formation. Standard infantry in the front, armored and light armored vehicles with medics inside. Dragoon infantry and sharpshooters behind those and last but not least, the Alphas were in the very back of the formation. We were surrounded by our loved ones, ready to see us off. As we were saying goodbye, I saw Cheryl alongside Seiya and went to talk with them.

"Listen, I just want to say-"

"Shut it." Ordered Cheryl. She leaned in and gave me a passionate kiss, even more than Jane's. "You better come back alive." She warned.

"Yes, Ma'am." I then kneeled to Seiya "I'll see you later bud, okay?" I said as I ruffled Seiya's non-existent hair. Seiya began to cry again "There, there, don't cry. Promise me you'll stay strong like your dad. Keep me in your prayers alright?"

"Uh-huh," He nodded through his tears.

"Attaboy…" I stood up, saluted and went back to the formation in the very front so I could get everyone back in order. Once all was settled, I gave the order. "Open the gates!" I ordered, and with a final look at Cheryl and Seiya, a single tear fell. "FORWARD. MARCH!"

We left the safety of New Warfang on September 22, 2017, at seven in the morning with fifty thousand eager soldiers ready to fight.


	36. Chapter 36

We marched with little to no break for five whole hours in standard marching formation. The Alphas and Dragoons were left at designated areas each closer to the other in case we needed them.

I traced my finger across the map from the city to our approximate location, we were almost there so I halted the formation. All that separated us from their base was the treeline and the meadow that the base was in. From what I could see, their base was gigantic and I knew it wasn't just perspective. According to what I could see with the help of the map, there were four outer sections and a middle one in the shape of a slanted square, so it was really more shaped like a diamond of sorts. One outer section in each corner of the diamond. While the outer sections were about the same size as the past fortresses, the middle one was at least twice as large.

"Alright boys," I started, "I think it's safe to say we're all pretty tired. We'll take an hour break and attack their base from there." I explained. As always: We broke formation and relaxed. While everyone else talked and laughed, I was sitting at the end of the tree-line, looking at their base; wondering how we were going to take it.

"So that's their HQ, huh?" Asked Spyro as he and Cynder came toward me.

I nodded "It's about time you show up." I joked "I really missed you guys…"

"Well, maybe you'll understand when you become an actual father" He laughed.

"Yeah, no offense but until you have a child of your own blood, you won't really understand. It's hard to leave our kids, but since this is probably the last battle, we thought it would be best for us to join back in"

"Actually, I think I can understand. It was a bit hard for me to leave Seiya at home before but I knew I had to do this, I can't just sit at home knowing my soldiers are potentially giving their lives." I began to heat up my food "You should probably eat, no one likes to fight on an empty stomach. Especially with your appetite… Cynder."

She blushed "W-what are you talking about? I'll let you know I eat like a proper dragoness."

I gave her a blank stare "Sure…"

"Spyro, say something!"

"I mean, I don't think most eat like how you do. I literally have to warn the people at the restaurant if we go to a buffet a day earlier. Dragons have big appetites to begin with but yours is especially large"

She sighed "I guess it's because I wasn't fed well when I was Malefor's captive, I was only given the bare minimum and I'd be lucky if it didn't have any mold on it."

John came walking with two mre bags in hand "So that's why… Well, you can definitely trust this to not have any mold; it's just seasoned properly. No need to thank me."

The packages read beef and lamb gyro bowl, for those who don't know what that is, first of all, the closest English pronunciation would be "gi-ro" with the roll of the tongue. It's a Mediterranean dish similar to the Mexican Taco except that it's flatbread instead of a corn tortilla, the filling would be mainly lamb, vegetables and cucumber sauce.

"What'll you eat, John?" I asked.

"Me? I'm having some pasta, nothing too fancy."

For the rest of the time, we joked and talked like always, them, eating their pasta and bowls while I eat my burrito.

"So, at the beginning of the attack, we go downhill and, no joke, John's boot flies up twenty feet in the air, and lands right on my hands!"

"We never could have done it again" Added John.

"And John looked at me and said 'well what do I do now?'"

"And he said 'Fight, you idiot!'" Exclaimed John

"Well, did you give him his boot back?" Asked Cynder.

"Give it back?" I asked "I **used** it! The smell of it alone probably slew half of our enemies!" We all laughed so much, our stomachs began to ache.

Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end.

An hour passed and I found myself in a testudo marching toward the base and I really didn't want to fight again so I had all units halt a few twenty feet away. I had the shields open up for me and was handed a megaphone.

"Carlos Luis! Your days were numbered and they've come to an end! You can obviously see our force, we can blow up your walls, storm in and kill every one of your soldiers **or** we can peacefully negotiate your surrender. Make your choice!"

I heard his voice "Those are some tough words, but can you back it up! What will you do!? I'm all the way up here and you're all the way down there! You think your puny shields and stolen technology will keep you safe? Come and get us!"

"Carlos, I no longer want to fight but if you're going to be as stubborn as a mule then I'll have no choice but to have my men storm your base!"

I heard another voice, it was trembling "Sir, I think we should surrender, you can't possibly expect us to fight them. Not after all we've tried! No matter how much we throw at them, we just bolster their resolve! I think he's serious! Be smart and-"

"SILENCE!" He shouted.

I heard a gasp and begged to be spared and to forgive him because he was out of line but soon his voice was choked out. A body was then hurled off of the wall and plummeted onto our shields.

"Make of that what you will!" Shouted Carlos.

The man was dead, several puncture wounds on his chest and throat slashed. I believe I had my final answer, unfortunately, we had to fight. We just barely covered ourselves before they started to fire on us! Snipers from the tree-line started to take down slayers from the top while we planted explosives and blew our way in. Walking through the hole, we were caught in a lead inferno from a whole line of miniguns in the very back of the section, it actually caused a bit of friendly fire among themselves. I wanted to call in air support to at least distract them but I knew that it would be a bad move at that moment, I didn't want a repeat of the eleventh fortress.

"It's too much firepower! I can't hold it up for long!" a soldier in my formation exclaimed.

"Don't you give up! Keep the formation! You drop that shield your whole row gets slaughtered!" I warned. I knew invading a section wasn't going to be easy but I didn't think they were going to have a whole row of machine guns! The piercing sound of a falling mortar shell began to ring in the air amongst the fire. The pelt of the shells along with the bullets proved too much for some of my men, the front shieldmen dropped it only a few inches and his head was riddled with bullets, causing a domino effect with everyone else behind him. This caused a panic in the formation but I told them to try to close the gap but that space was big enough for the slayers on the top to shoot at us along with the several machine gunners with them. My testudo was compromised and with no vehicles in front of us, I was at a dangerous disadvantage. I had the formation break and disperse, we couldn't have closed the formation, too many people were dying. I leaped into a building where unfortunately slayers were in, I turned into my dragon form and proceeded to clear it of all foes inside.

Once I was done, I took a small peek outside the window and saw that while the vehicles were starting to advance ahead of the formations, there were still machine gunners on top. I had no choice but to call air support but to primarily focus on the top gunners. Almost immediately, they dropped some serious firepower, their newly upgraded armor keeping them safe from the lead hail. Once the top gunners were taken out, the dragons then landed on the ground behind the vehicles and testudos, unleashing their breath weapons; I followed their lead and saw that the slayers were attempting to surround us. Unfortunately for them, the soldiers that were no longer in their testudos were guarding our flanks and intercepted them; long story short, their attempt to surround us failed. Once we reached a suitable range the testudos that survived went in front and created a massive shield wall that extended from each end. We fired, advanced a bit, fired, and advanced a bit; this repeated for several hours until the evening so we had to finish the battle quickly, it was nearing the Sabbath. We made a final push, soldiers died on both ends but we finally managed to take the first section and were able to rest at last. The victory did not come without a price though, we lost a bit over a thousand soldiers during the whole battle, and I knew that we would lose several more.

We put our dead in their caskets so that they could finally rest peacefully, burned the slayer bodies to ashes and proceeded to bury them underground. Some went to bed early but the four of us stayed up and gathered together near the campfire.

"Glad you guys made it…" I sighed

"Yeah, same here" Agreed Spyro "I almost forgot what battle was like after all this time, more intense than I remember."

"Well," Started John "they did change things up: They never used mortars before."

"I guess that goes to show that one should expect the unexpected." Thought Spyro.

I chuckled.

"What's so funny?" Asked Cynder.

"Nothing, nothing, it's just that… this somewhat reminds me of old times…" I looked into the fire "I remember that we always talked like this before or after a battle, the good old days…"

"It did keep our spirits up…" reminisced Spyro "Hey Enoch?"

"Yeah?"

"If you could choose to reverse time and never end up with dragon powers, would you?"

I thought about it "Well, even after all that happened and what I was put through, knowing what could have happened… no. I mean, yeah, I lost many good friends and… Master Aquarius… but if I wasn't shot down that morning, I never would have met you guys. Who knows what would have happened to the dragonkin. I suppose it's like the story of Joseph, his own brothers sold him to Egypt where he became a slave, he was jailed for being falsely accused of rape. However, the pharaoh had a dream that no one but he with the help of God could have interpreted. He predicted seven years of plenty but after that, seven years of famine that Egypt would not have survived with Joseph's help, who was soon made chief governor."

"Well, I guess you're the Joseph of the dragonkin" John chuckled "And a bit of a Moses too."

"Yeah" I laughed "Maybe a bit", we talked more for an hour but eventually, we rolled into our sleeping bags and fell asleep.

The next morning I had all of our ammo rounded up for the next day along with our weapons but what I saw, shocked me. Nearly all of our ammo shrunk to almost nothing! On a scale of one to ten, it would be a two or three, the first section took more than I thought. I couldn't send soldiers to get more ammo during the day, so I only kept it to myself and the generals so the rest didn't panic. The day continued as normal, we had worship, praised God, etc. Thankfully, there weren't any slayers trying to take back their section. Eventually, the sun had set and I had several dragoon squads to New Warfang for more ammo which took about 8 hours. During that time, however, John wanted to speak to me in the tent that stood as the war room.

"Enoch" Started John "I'm taking half the army with me to take the third section, you'll take the second"

First of all, I don't believe he had the authority to order me around but also "Wait, this is a bit last minute, isn't it? At least let the men know beforehand" I interjected.

"They already know, it's you who doesn't."

While it was an idea, I didn't like how he was giving orders behind my back. I mean, I thought we were a team, we informed each other of everything when it came to the lives of our men.

"I purposely told them while you were napping. If I told them while you were awake, you would have objected and proposed something that would take more time than necessary."

"We could take each section one by one, you know."

"Thanks for proving my point. If we did that, not only will it take too long but the sections we took could already have been reclaimed, making our efforts and lives lost in vain. Knowing you, we would keep fighting until the very last man. If you take the second and I the third, we would have killed two birds with one stone."

"Okay, you're right about that but what if your half is decimated? When we attack the fourth, we'll have no support or backup from you. For all we know, they'll have more than us, and while a good formation and strategy can be made, that's not always going to guarantee a victory. If we go into the first section and we're crushed, I may have to call off the assault making all those lives in vain also and retreat back to New Warfang, allowing them to do whatever they want."

"We have to finish this, the sooner the better and I think my plan will be faster."

"Do you even know how many casualties we took in this first battle? Over a thousand!"

"And who came up with the idea to put the medics in the vehicles and not with the regular infantry, that was yours. I could have probably done a better job and we may have taken fewer casualties just by putting them inside the testudo."

I shot a cold glare at him "I admit it, it was a bad move, but I can learn from my mistakes. I'll have the medics be put in the formation, happy?"

"I would've been happier if you had put them there in the first place…"

I slammed my fist on the table "Do whatever you want! But let me tell you this: These soldiers trust you with their lives. If you take half the army and get them all killed, it's all on you. Take the third section and we'll take the second. Once that's done, we'll rejoin and take the fourth, after that we'll take the main one. Got it?"

John gave no answer but just stared at me.

" **Got. It?** "

"Alright, alright, I got it!"

"Good, now if you'll excuse me, I have to get some shuteye."

I went outside, got in my sleeping bag and slept the night away.


	37. Chapter 37

As we… agreed that night: John took his part to the third and I took mine to the second section. As I said before, I learned from my mistake and not only did I have the medics in the formation but the vehicles in front of the testudo. It was a march of about thirty to forty minutes but as soon as we got there, we had our tanks blow several holes in their wall.

We went in, the main force stayed behind the vehicles while others began to split and took to the stairs. In those moments, it was difficult to get a shot off as not only would you risk getting a hit from the front but behind as well as the tiniest gap could be taken advantage of. We needed to get those machine gunners on our rear taken out which is also why I had to risk the dragons to do the job quicker.

Mortars began to pelt us over and over again, some were gas but most were shrapnel. Either way we put our gas masks on as quickly as we could but unfortunately for some of the shieldmen, fiddling around with a gas mask while keeping the shield up proved too difficult in which they suffocated. The formation broke slightly, there were a few gaps on the top and some on the sides which were quickly taken advantage of by the gunners and mortars. In a few minutes, the formation was completely shattered; we were forced to disperse and leave ourselves more vulnerable. Several dragons flew down and formed the old dragon wall formation in the rear. While the dragons and testudos were doing their best in eliminating the gunners, there were so many of them and the testudos had to march slowly to keep the formation together. Some, however, were eliminated by any frags that slipped under.

Once my formation was destroyed I managed to hide in a building and began helping out my comrades on the wall through the window. Shot after shot, the rear gunners were finally taken out. I came out and saw that the mortars managed to destroy the treads of the tanks and wheels of the over armored vehicles, we had no more advancing protection so we had to improvise. Some of the remaining testudos advanced and slowly formed a shield wall with the others putting theirs on top of the other, creating a somewhat shield canopy. While that was good protection in the front, it wasn't very good against most mortars. We were being pounded by field artillery left and right but even so, the dragons advanced and used their breath weapons over the shields,

Just like the first section, I had a good feeling that the mortars would stop soon after the firing was over. As I began to think of a plan, one of the shieldmen lost his strength which not only got him killed but the rest that were behind him. Oddly enough, that gave me an idea that helped me finish. It was a crazy idea but it just might work, I was already risking the lives of my men enough but if we did this right, I knew we could pull it off.

Once I informed my soldiers, even they thought it was crazy but we couldn't just rely on the dragons for firepower and advancing would be near impossible, it was already hard keeping a testudo and even harder trying to keep the shield wall in place. No one had any better ideas so, in the end, we went with mine. Several soldiers went down on an army crawl excluding the shield men and dragons who used smoke to hide us, either via grenade or combined breath weapons. The wall slowly began to open and let the bullets in, flying inches over our heads, unfortunately, a few panicked and stood up. Those who kept their composure followed my lead and we crawled through mud and blood while the shield wall began to close again while the dragons provided cover fire.

It was a long trek but we couldn't turn back, it was what we had to do. Once we were a few ten feet away from the line, I looked to a soldier to my right and immediately he was killed, but that only bolstered my resolve. A few minutes later we began to separate and sneak behind them and drew our knives. I held up three fingers and mouthed the words "One… Two… Three!". We plunged our knives deep into their chest until they went limp. The battle for the second section was won.

While we lost less than the first section, eight hundred is still a lot to me.

I received a transmission from John hours later.

"What's your report?" I asked.

"We took the third as planned but with a few thousand casualties, maybe about four or five."

I sighed "Not something you should take lightly… I'd say we have about forty-two to forty thousand left then…"

"Hey, at least we took it. Only two more to go."

"But at what!-" I took a breath and lowered my voice "But at what cost? Maybe it's because we never lost this many in one battle but I'm terrified of the battles to come. What if we lose more tomorrow? What if we're wiped out!? This stress, this anxiety, it's something that I don't think I've ever experienced. It may not affect you as much but I see each and every one of my people as my own children; for every dead soldier, my heart aches ten-fold! I don't know if I can take all this!"

"First of all, calm down. Matthew 6:34 says 'Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble' The Proverbs of Solomon also tells us 'Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct your paths'. You also told us this before to 'remember what your fighting for'"

I sighed "Using Bible quotes and my own words against me, eh?"

"Do what you have to do right now, just, try to focus on the bright side, alright?"

"...I only promise to try…"

He chuckled "That's all I can ask for; talk to you later."

As I promised, I tried to stay positive but I needed a bit of support so I took the rest of the afternoon to pray.

I could barely concentrate in the morning, with so many thoughts flooding through my mind, I didn't even notice what I was doing.

"Enoch!" Shouted Spyro.

"Huh…?" I then noticed that I was about to pull the pin on a grenade.

"What's wrong with you today: You've been… off… this whole morning."

I sighed "Sorry, sorry. I've just been wrapped up in my own thoughts."

"Care to share?"

"Well… what if we don't win this battle… or even this war? Then all of these lives we lost through these four years were in vain. Sarah, Azureth, Jane, Jake, Stix" Though the guy was put in prison and betrayed us, he was executed at a later time. I never wanted him to die but he managed to break out a few times and most likely went nuts; he killed quite a few in the city. "Maria" I paused with a tear forming "...Aquarius…"

"Well, in that case, we'll win, I predict that we'll take over the base and end the dragonslayer menace once and for all. Yes, we've lost good friends in this war but that anger should be used to bolster our resolve. Cheer up, we need you, now more than ever, we need an excellent leader with a good head on his shoulders and that's you."

"John could disagree…"

"It doesn't matter what John thinks. If God thought John was better, then he would have chosen him; he didn't. He chose you, so you take your sword and lead your people! Lead the dragons to freedom, just like you did in Warfang, it doesn't matter if you have over a thousand, or even one hundred, I know you can do this."

"I guess you're right; alright, let's do this!" I stood and rose my fist.

"That's the spirit!"

With Spyro's little speech, I could finally clear my head and focus. Thirty minutes later, we were marching towards the fourth section… I honestly wish we hadn't.

"So… Enoch…" John scratched his head when we met up "I would like to apologize for giving orders behind your back. I knew you wouldn't like it but I felt that it had to be done."

I sighed "It's fine, it's fine… Let's just forgive and forget, okay?"

He nodded.

We got the army ready and followed the procedure to blow up a few holes; we were hit like crazy once we got in like usual but something was different, there seemed to be fewer slayers than before. I looked at the top of their walls and there were zero machine gunners, I got the best look I could have at the very back and there wasn't even a machine gun line either. Something was very wrong, it was easy compared to the last sections… to easy.

First came the testudos, then the armored vehicles and tanks, the dragons afterward. Since there were no machine gun lines, I had some dragon platoons and cavalry interrupt and distract the enemy while we set up our shield wall.

"All units" I ordered on my headset "Be on your guard; this looks too easy."

"High general?" Asked Spyro.

"What's on your mind, general Spyro?" He couldn't really call me by my name in that setting so he addressed me with my unique rank.

"I understand why you would think that way but maybe it's because we've thinned out their herd, so much that this is all they can send."

I thought about it "You could be right, but keep your guard up, just in case."

We advanced with our shield and spear wall, rifles behind them. Just five hundred feet away, there were fewer slayers still alive; I thought we actually had this, perhaps Spyro was right. I looked to my right and saw that the ground was consecutively blown up and the explosions were heading right for us. The dragons stopped what they were doing and tried to take us up but it was too late. The underground explosives had caught up to us; I was blown into what felt like thirty feet up in the air, surprisingly intact at least on the outside, I'm sure my eardrums were destroyed as my ears were ringing like crazy.

When I came down, the wind was knocked out of me and it took me a minute to stand up. I wish I hadn't. I was surrounded by bodies, some dismembered, others rolling in pain, others were calling out to their mothers in vain. What hit me the most is that when I crawled out of the crater, I saw more of my poor and helpless soldiers in the same condition. When I looked behind me, the slayers were so ruthless they blew up their own men; every single slayer inside was horrifically killed. I called out if there was anyone alive, while I got no answer, some managed to stand up (Though some had pieces of shrapnel sticking out of them). I walked throughout the valley of death and looked into the open eyes of one of my fallen comrades. I fell to my knees and cried out to the empty, dragonless sky.


	38. Chapter 38

Chapter 37

There was a fraction compared to how much there was before. Out of the fifty thousand that were brought, only about twenty-five thousand were left alive, most of them heavily injured. Eventually, we evacuated every soldier and brought them into the medical tents, but those who didn't make it were put in their bags. While that happened, I just stood at the hole and stared at the mess I made. I was far from disappointed, I was angry, furious at myself. I stared at no-man's land for an entire hour, I don't think I even blinked once. I shouted and began to punch the wall with all my might, during, I heard my knuckles crack and my skin broke, leaving a fist-sized stain on the wall but I kept punching until I knew I broke my hands. The pain was great but I didn't care, it was the least amount of punishment I deserved.

Spyro and Cynder lay close together, thankfully it was only a few broken wings, nothing that a red crystal couldn't handle. I couldn't imagine what I would do if I lost them, they were good encouragement just to be around, but, that time, if anything, I just felt more anger; I felt like I failed them somehow. As I walked by them, Cynder Spoke.

"A-are you okay? What's wrong?"

"I'm fine!" I snapped.

Cynder was taken aback, and so was I for a bit until Spyro spoke up. "Hey! Don't talk to my mate that way!" he defended.

I paused and sighed "Sorry, it's just- I have a lot of things going on in my mind."

"Would you like to sit and talk about it?" Asked Cynder.

"No thanks. I just want to be left alone right now…" I stated. I turned into my dragon form and decided to land on a tree, _maybe some sunlight will do me good…_ I thought. I opened my eyes sometime later and decided to pay John a visit; as I approached the tent he was in, I put on a mask and went inside. "I'd like to know how you went through a giant minefield and not only survived but with a broken finger also." I fakely smiled.

"I could say the same thing about you!" he laughed "I don't see a scratch on you."

Suddenly, I began to feel genuinely much happier for some reason. "Well, what can I say? God is good."

"All the time"

"And all the time?"

"God is good."

"I mean, sure, he put about twenty-five thousand of us to rest but hey he left half of us still walking."

"So wise guy, what's the plan?"

I closed my eyes and thought for a sec "hmm… That's on a need-to-know basis, and right now, you don't need to know."

"Really? Come on, you know you can tell me."

"Sorry, can't let this information get out yet." I started to quickly walk out of the tent and think of an actual plan. Nothing came up so I had scouts search around the sections for anything useful and came back four hours later. Thankfully, there weren't any slayers occupying the rest of the sections but they did sneak into the main one. They discovered quite a bit; there were four anti-alpha cannons in each corner of the section. Enslaved dragons were placing ammunition right next to them that was also near flammable and other explosive materials. Underground they had the command station as always but even below that was a massive prison that was most likely full of dragons. As they continued to sneak around in plain sight (They killed and disguised as others slayers) they saw a black dragon with blue-speckled arms and cream-colored horns beat mercilessly. All the poor guy wanted was to see his daughter but the torturer told him that his daughter was dead along with his "worthless harlot of a wife"... Right, I forgot that the slayers sometimes force the females to fulfill their "needs". They couldn't do anything lest they would have been discovered so they quickly walked away and eventually found a giant hangar with a man-sized door. Before they could open the door, they were finally discovered. How they didn't get shot dead or caught before, I have no idea.

After the report, I called in the remaining high-ranking officers for a final meeting but had the scouts repeat their report before them.

"I know we don't have that many soldiers left but hear me out: we split the army into three and take the final section. Once the order is given, we'll simultaneously break-in. take out the anti-alpha cannons and call in the mechs. With that firepower, we may be able to take the fifth section and finally free the dragons, not only the ones in their prison but for all the dragons. Anyone too injured to fight will either be put in the vehicles so they can shoot slayers from inside. Or, depending on how their wounds are: they'll be put into the dragoons. Any questions?"

John raised his hand "Where will you be?"

"What do you mean? I'm going to be fighting with the rest of the infantry"

He shook his head "No, I don't think so."

"Oh? Then where will I be going then?"

"Your alpha, leading the charge in the delayed backup"

"Your reason being?"

"You're the least injured out of all of us, I feel that because of that, it would be best for you to pilot your mech."

"Well, I still have to call in Scaled Foxtrot."

"Don't worry about that, I already did"

And he did it again… Though I didn't blow up on him in front of my officers.

"Alright then…" I started "Let's put it to a vote. Who would like me to join the fight in my alpha?"

Several soldiers looked at John and raised their hands.

"Okay, and who votes otherwise?"

Fewer rose theirs.

I sighed "Very well. I shall go get the rest of my gear then."

"Don't take this the wrong way" Assured John "You're simply too valuable to lose, it was a miracle you got off without a scratch. I just felt that this would be a better option for yourself."

I slowly nodded "You're dismissed."

I apologized to Spyro and Cynder that I couldn't join for our nightly chat and said my goodbyes before I left. The sun had already set and was driven via humvee to my alpha (Dropped off by our chinooks hours before) and I began to doze off an hour later. I dreamt of tightly hugging Seiya while looking deeply into Cheryl's blue soothing eyes. My dream came to an abrupt stop when the driver told me that we arrived. I turned into my dragon form and entered the alpha through the cockpit, careful not to hit anything important; I turned back into my human form. I walked into the small bunkhouse with the ingrained bed with slightly chilly air, though there was a cushioned area on the floor. I turned into my dragon form and decided to sleep in it on the floor, I was actually warmer compared to my human one. You know, while being in my human form is nice and all, I wonder how my life would have been if I stayed a dragon rather than miraculously turn back.

My dream consisted of relaxing with Cheryl and Seiya on a grassy meadow full of colorful flowers. There was a beautiful river flowing through it, reflecting the sun's beautiful rays.


End file.
